Syndication equals monopoly in migration

No one can take issue with the consensus that emerged from a roundtable discussion held on May 21, organised by Baira Anti-Syndicate Grand Alliance, that syndication in respect of sending workers abroad must be prevented and, further, that good governance in this sector is a sine qua non for that to be possible.

The said roundtable was organised against the backdrop of, first, the Malaysian government signing an MOU on labour cooperation with Bangladesh in December last year, lifting a three-year freeze—but regrettably the recruiting process has not started as yet since the two countries have not reached a consensus on the process of sending labour—and, second, a group of 25 recruiting agencies lobbying the government to give them exclusive rights to send workers to Malaysia, over other recruiting agencies.

Needless to say, our migrant workers have suffered at both ends due to lax regulation, poor oversight and a general lack of good governance which, among other things, failed to ensure compliance by all the stakeholders. And it's a pity that despite the sincere efforts of the government and in particular the expatriate welfare ministry, there remain many impediments in the way of ensuring hassle-free, less expensive migration process for our migrant workers.

There should be no syndication, because that would mean monopoly, more scope to resort to corrupt practices and circumvent—even disregard—the legal and institutional requirements since, more likely than not, the cabal would have the blessings and indeed the sponsorship of the powerful quarters. Admittedly, a great deal has been done to reduce the trouble our migrant workers face both at home and in the receiving countries, but much more remains to be done. We have written exhaustively on the state of governance in the migration labour sector, which ranges from institutional weaknesses, lack of adequate legislation, inadequate manpower for oversight, and of course rampant corruption and lack of coordination between various agencies involved in the migration process.  

Given the contribution to the country's GDP and the foreign exchange reserves by migrant workers, it is time to seriously cogitate on the ways and means to attenuate the governance lacunae and accentuate the performance of the ministries and agencies concerned. There are several studies made in this regard; the latest one by the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) identified as many as 16 types of irregularities and corruption which, if addressed urgently, would go a long way in ameliorating the sufferings of migrant workers and improving governance in the sector.