Lack of policy to blame for expats’ plight

ANIS ALAMGIR

Hundreds of Bangladeshi labourers get stranded abroad every year for various reasons, but there is no clear government policy to bring them back home. As a result, not only the expatriates and their family members are suffering, but the country's image has been tarnished in the international arena.
Right now the ministry of expatriate welfare and overseas employment is dealing with the issue on a case by case basis, not by specific policy. But the ministry has a policy to bring back the dead body of an expatriate labourer. The ministry pays TK two Lakh to the family members of a labourer who die through a workplace accident.
"Question like gone abroad as legal or illegal workers, individually or collectively, should come later. First we have to arrange their ticket to come home, then we can judge who is at fault and whom we should punish. The manpower ministry is empowered to punish the faulty recruiting agents," said a top official of the foreign ministry, adding: "We are tired of dealing with the stranded Bangladeshi problem with the expatriate welfare ministry. They have huge money for the welfare of expatriates but adopt a lengthy process to disburse it for stranded nationals."
"Did we raise the question when they sent money to the country," the officer questioned adding: "Why we are not ensuring safety, security and salary of our labourers before sending them abroad?"
He added: "Unfortunately our expatriate welfare ministry's attitude is also like that of host governments, who should provide air ticket for bringing our nationals back."
Citing the recent example of two stranded Bangladeshis, one in Benin and another in Liberia, the foreign ministry official said that over the last few months they were trying to bring them back but it was not completed. He said: "We only felt obliged to bring back stranded Bangladeshis if the issue is published in newspapers."
Twenty-eight Bangladeshi sailors were stranded in the West African country Benin for over six months. Seven of them returned home on May 17. The foreign ministry hopes that the rest will come back soon. Around 60 seamen went to Benin to work on ships in December last year but they remained unpaid since then.
In Liberia's case, eight manpower recruiting agencies arranged visas for 99 Bangladeshis to go there. But 38 of them were unable to reach Liberia while 21 were able to return and the remaining 40 were stranded there.
Talking to The Independent, secretary, ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment Dr. Zafar Ahmed said: "I also feel that we should have a policy regarding stranded Bangladeshis because we are facing a lot of problems over this issue".
"Sometimes we arrange money for them from our wage-earners' development fund. During the recent incident in Liberia, we gave Tk 16 lakh for air tickets for 20 Bangladeshis.
This is the fund for expatriate labourers - those who went abroad through the bureau of manpower expatriates and training (BMET) but we are spending the fund on others also on humanitarian grounds."
Dr. Zafar Ahmed admitted that his ministry adopted a lengthy process to bring back the stranded Bangladeshis due to bureaucratic reasons.
In replying to a question, the secretary suggested that the government could allocate a fund in the budget to spend for such proposes. The government could adopt a policy in this regard if there was a fund.
Dr. Zafar Ahmed disclosed that his ministry had taken initiatives to launch a new bank for the welfare of expatriates. The government needs no extra money to open the bank as TK 300 crore lies in the wage-earners' development fund.

7 stranded sailors return home today

ANIS ALAMGIR

Twenty-eight Bangladeshi sailors stranded in the West African country Benin are expected to reach Dhaka within this week. Seven of them will arrive this afternoon. Confirming the news, Wahidur Rahman, director general (Africa) of the ministry of foreign affairs (MOFA), told The Independent that the seven seamen would reach Dhaka at 5 pm by an Emirates Airlines flight. He said that the rest 21 stranded Bangladeshis would reach Dhaka on May 19. Earlier, the foreign ministry announced that the mariners would come home by the first week of May but it did not happen due to the fact that immigration process was not completed and also due to unavailability of air tickets. Charge d'affaires of the Bangladesh mission in Morocco Lutfor Rahman, who travelled to Benin to arrange for the safe departure of the sailors, is engaged in overall supervision of the matter. Foreign ministry sources said that after receiving the news about the stranded Bangladeshies, the foreign ministry made hectic efforts for the repatriation of 28 crew who were caught in the offshore of Benin. The visit of the CDA brought positive result and finally the Benin authorities agreed to repatriate the Bangladesh nationals. In the meantime, the shipping ministry in Dhaka has conveyed to the (MOFA) that they would pay the air fare for the stranded individuals from the Crew Members Welfare Fund for bringing back the sailors to Dhaka. MOFA sources said that around 60 seamen went to Benin to work on ships in December last year but they remained unpaid since then. Among them, around 30 have already returned home while the rest are passing hard times there because of irregular supply of food, water and fuel.

Hasina to explore job market in Malaysia

ANIS ALAMGIR

Is Malaysia going to open its job market for Bangladeshi workers? It's a million dollar question for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina when she visits Malaysia from May 18. The Prime Minister left Dhaka yesterday for Seoul from there she would reach Kuala Lumpur.
Though she will join an international conference in Malaysia-the sixth World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) - the Bangladesh leader is also scheduled to meet her Malaysian counterpart Najib bin Razak in a bilateral meeting at the Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur. This is her first visit to Malaysia after establishing a new government in Dhaka.
Both manpower exporters and workers of Bangladesh are eagerly waiting to see if there is any positive outcome on the Bangladeshi labour issue in her Malaysia visit but the perspectives of workers and exporters are different.
Different sources from Malaysia said that Bangladeshi workers living there are interested to see legalisation of their status as thousands of them are living there as undocumented workers. Manpower exporters and their local agents, however, wonder whether there would be any initiative on calling visa while the government is under pressure to reopen the Malaysian labour market for providing jobs to millions of unemployed youths.
This is not the first meeting of the Bangladesh Prime Minister with her Malaysian counterpart. She had met Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Spain last year on the sideline of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). She requested him to review the freeze on the intake of the Bangladeshi workers. But Najib clarified that the freeze was meant to avoid unscrupulous agents from exploiting foreign nationals in Malaysia.
In March 2009, the Malaysian Cabinet rejected work permits for 55,000 Bangladeshi workers who have yet to go to the Southeast Asian country. Malaysia had also decided to freeze the intake of Bangladeshi workers since October 2007 after the first similar scheme was lifted in 1999.
It is estimated that the number of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia went up to 5,00,000 including those who went with work permits and without permits. The figure is one-sixth of the foreign workers in Malaysia.
The intake of Bangladeshi workers for Malaysia is perhaps the most lucrative business for the agents in both countries compared to intake from other countries.
Unofficially, one Bangladeshi ordinary worker has to pay Tk over 2,00,000 to get a job in Malaysia whereas in a worker from Nepal and other South Asian countries has to pay Tk 60,000 only.
Last year, the Malaysian government had officially announced that the country would not allow Bangladeshi workers into the country to make ways for locals to be employed in the agriculture sector, where a large number of Bangladeshis are working.
The Prime Minister will fly to the Malaysian capital on May 18 to join the WIEF on the next day.
She will speak at the inaugural function of the forum meeting where a large number of leaders from Islamic countries and around 200 leading businessmen will join.
Besides bilateral talks with the Malaysian Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina will have lunch and dinner on May 19 to be hosted by Najib bin Razak. On the same day, the chairman of the Islamic Economic Forum will call on Sheikh Hasina.
The Bangladesh Prime Minister will also hold meetings with Malaysian investors and the Bangladesh community in Malaysia separately.
She will leave Kuala Lumpur on May 20 and is expected to arrive in Dhaka on May 21.

Change in authority of issuing diplomatic passports irks MOFA

ANIS ALAMGIR

The foreign ministry has lost its authority to issue diplomatic passports to the designated people authorised by the government under the new Rules of Business which have been introduced since April 1 last when issuance of Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) was launched. Under the new rules of business (revised in January, 2009), the government omitted the provision for issuance of diplomatic passports from the account of foreign ministry jobs. But, a tug-of-war has started on the issue between the home ministry and the foreign ministry since the foreign ministry noticed that it has no power of issuance of the machine readable diplomatic passports under the new rules. Not only that, even the foreign ministry is in the dark whether it can issue manual diplomatic passports with one-year validity in absence of the MRPs. Very recently foreign ministry wrote a letter to home secretary to make the issue clear to them. Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni expressed her dissatisfaction over the issue and asked her officials not to quit the war with the home ministry to restore its legitimate rights which her ministry have been enjoying from the beginning of the introduction of diplomatic passports. "I am surprised to know that the authority of the foreign ministry to issue diplomatic passports has been omitted from the Rules of Business," Dipu was quoted as saying at an official meeting of the ministry last week. Under the government rules, among others president, prime minister, ministers of all ranks, law makers, judges of the higher courts, secretaries, major generals, speaker, heads and members of different constitutional bodies and all officers of foreign ministry along with their spouses are eligible for diplomatic passports. Under the previous rule, foreign minister could also issue diplomatic passports to any Bangladeshi citizen under his/her own consideration. However, a foreign ministry official claimed that this provision was not applied by the present foreign minister. An Official preferring anonymity, told The Independent that the seizure of diplomatic passport issuing authority was a serious disregard to the foreign ministry under this government. He said that from the beginning, this government had been undermining the foreign ministry by its unpredicted decisions one after another. "There is no reason for confiscating the power of foreign ministry as it is handling the job very efficiently", he added. Talking to The Independent, a top home ministry official said, home ministry is the absolute authority for issuing any kind of passports. "We want to follow the international rules and norms and want to ensure flawless international standard MRPs." "However, in this case before issuing diplomatic passports, we may put the condition of foreign ministry's approval for getting any red passports", he continued. The government has been working, in phases, to set-up 85 new passport offices and six visa cells at home and abroad for issuance MRPs and Machine-readable Visas (MRVs). For non-resident Bangladeshis, 66 passport offices will be set-up at 66 Bangladesh missions and consulates abroad, which will issue the MRPs. The replacement of all the passports will take almost three years, which will fall inside the deadline of November 2015.

Advisers’ India visit: Foreign ministry in the dark

ANIS ALAMGIR

Foreign ministry is mum on the visit of two advisers of prime minister to India to review the progress on agreements and joint communiqué signed between Dhaka and New Delhi during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's India visit early January this year.
"We don't know anything about the visit as Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is coordinating the subject and officially we are not informed", said an officer of foreign ministry preferring anonymity.
But, unofficially we know that two advisers to prime minister will visit New Delhi and they may be leaving Dhaka Tuesday (today). Our director General of South Asia will also be included in the team, who will leave Dhaka for New Delhi Tuesday, he added. Sources to PMO said, under the leadership of adviser to PM Dr Moshiur Rahman, a team of official from different ministries would visit India shortly. They would meet Indian authorities including Indian finance minister on May 5 and 6.
Both the country will review the agreements and joint communiqué signed between the two neighbouring countries during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in January this year. During the talks between Sheikh Hasina and Indian premier Manmohan Singh at Hyderabad House, three agreements for mutual legal assistance on criminal matters, transfer of sentenced persons and combating international terrorism, organised crime and illegal drug trafficking as well as two Memoranda of Understanding for cooperation in power sector and a cultural exchange programme during 2010-12 were signed.
The two sides also agreed to make operational the Sabroom-Ramgarh and Demagiri-Thegamukh Land Customs Stations and to open border-haats (markets) along the Indo-Bangla border in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya.
Official said that both the prime ministers expressed their satisfaction over the progress of agreements and joint communiqué when they met on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Thimphu, Bhutan. They also hoped early implementation of their decisions.
"The decisions of upcoming meeting of advisors with India are not related with meeting of two prime ministers in Bhutan. It was set earlier", sources in PMO said.
Explaining the reason for coordination work on agreements and communiqué sidelining foreign ministry, the PMO sources said, the government took the issue seriously and the PMO decided to handle the matter by itself as lot of ministries were involved in the matter.
"This is also yielding good result. Ministries concerned are responding quickly and delivering their job properly as the PMO is involved in the affair", the sources added.
During the last four months, there were some progress on the issues related to Hasina-Manmohan talks.
Officials of both the countries met at meetings on electricity several times in Dhaka and New Delhi to find out how India can export electricity to Bangladesh. India agreed to supply to Bangladesh 250 MW electricity from its grid. In this context, both the prime ministers emphasised the need for expediting the inter-grid connectivity.
Meanwhile, the cabinet yesterday assigned two ministers and an adviser to the prime minister to review the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on power import from India which was signed in presence of Hasina and Manmohan.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Planning Minister AK Khandker and Prime Minister's Finance Affairs Adviser Mashiur Rahman were asked to submit the report in this regard soon.
Both the countries met on water issue last March in New Delhi. Bangladesh handed over a draft agreement on sharing of the Teesta river water during the ministerial meeting of Joint Rivers Commission in New Delhi. India also handed over a draft on principle of water sharing. On the other hand, joint working group of Bangladesh and India on trade will meet in Dhaka on May 6 and 7.
A joint team of both the countries assessed the improvement of infrastructure and the cost for one-time or longer term transportation of ODCs (Over Dimensional Cargo) from Ashuganj.