Middlemen in Labour Migration: Invisible they cannot remain

The government is considering bringing informal grassroots service providers into the labour migration sector under a framework to tackle fraudulence.

Known as "middlemen" or "sub-agents", they are an integral part of the labour migration cycle despite not being recognised by relevant laws.

They provide at least a dozen types of services to migrant workers -- from assisting in passport processing to accompanying workers to the airport, according to studies by various migrant rights groups.

This is due to a major gap that exists in the government's pre-departure services to migrants, said a joint report of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Migrants depend on the informal agents more than authorised recruiters and state institutions because of their proximity with the former and lax awareness, the report added.

Yet these informal service providers remain largely out of the coverage of the Overseas Employment and Migrant Act-2013 and government regulations and work under many recruiting agencies unofficially.

There are also widespread allegations that remaining under the shadow of unscrupulous recruiting agencies, these middlemen often take large amounts of money from unaware migrant workers with false job promises and even get involved         in human trafficking.

Against this backdrop, the parliamentary standing committee on expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry on October 8 discussed the issue of registering "sub-agents working under Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira)".

Later, the government in this regard formed a committee headed by Shamsul Alam, director general at Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).

"In broader sense, the objective is to ensure no one is deceived by middlemen," said Shamsul Alam, adding they have taken an initiative to "recognise" the middlemen and the committee held a meeting with Baira representatives to find a way.

At present, the issue is at the discussion stage to find a suitable process, the BMET boss told this newspaper by phone on December 7.

"We are kind of thinking recruiting agencies will employ [the middlemen] after getting BMET's approval," he also said, adding they will have to ensure the process is in line with the Overseas Employment and Migrant Act-2013.

Informal intermediaries and migrants' social networks now procure more than 50 percent of visas and other migration services, including passport and smart card collection, online registration and medical checkups, said the 2018 IOM-ILO report.

A World Bank report published in March this year says Bangladeshi labour workers spent on average Tk 2.78 lakh, or more than $3,000, for migration.

The highest government-fixed migration cost is Tk 1.66 lakh for jobs in Russia, followed by Tk 1.65 lakh for Saudi Arabia.

A survey of 5,407 households in the high migration-prone district Tangail in 2017 found 19 percent people could not make it for overseas jobs despite paying Tk 1.95 lakh each on an average, or around Tk 2,706.2 crore in total.

Another 32 percent who made it overseas faced harassment in the destination countries, found a survey of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU).

Some 90 percent respondents said they paid money as migration cost to middlemen, the survey revealed.

MAKE THEM ACCOUNTABLE

Sector insiders and migrant rights groups said the government should find a viable option to hold middlemen accountable.

RMMRU Founding Chair Prof Tasneem Siddiqui thinks reducing migration costs through regularising middlemen is possible.

Since middlemen are not recognised by law, they largely remain "invisible" in the labour migration cycle, she said.

"When you will deploy the licensed ones at the root level and the aspirant migrants are seeking services from only them, then the unscrupulous ones will be identified and ejected automatically."

During an online discussion of RMMRU held on November 29, Secretary at Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare Ahmed Munirus Saleheen said the government has agreed in principle to bring "middlemen" under a framework.

Anisul Islam Mahmud, chairman of the parliamentary committee on the expatriates' welfare ministry, told the discussion BMET should be the main focal point for the registration.

Prof Tasneem said there should be a centralised system for the registration so that a recruiting agency will be able to deploy any of the registered middlemen if it wants.

Baira Secretary General Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman stressed the need for developing a centralised database for direct recruitment of workers from the grassroots level.

"Reduction of migration cost is a concern of all. So, adding a layer of stakeholders may affect that policy," he said.

Agencies are more or less dependent on the existing process of recruitment through middlemen due to the absence of such a database, he added.

Prof Tasneem said middlemen have been providing services in the sector for more than three decades.

And migrant rights groups had been campaigning for either abolition or regulation of middlemen since 2001. A new campaign for their regulation was launched in 2016 which gained pace the following year.

When RMMRU talked with grassroots-level people, despite being aware of fraudulence, they intended to handle the situation with middlemen locally instead of making a complaint to BMET or the courts, she added.

Asked for a reason, they cited that middlemen were well known to them, she further said.

Around 7.5 million Bangladeshi migrants are living abroad, sixth among labour-sending countries, according to an IOM report published this year.

Government officials say more than one crore Bangladeshis live in over 160 countries.