Job seekers
In response to your editorial "dangerous desperation" (published May 18, 2005), I was dismayed not to find any mention about the culpability of the people who are showing this desperation. It is time we should put some blame on the people who in many cases knowingly go through these illegal travel agencies/recruiters in the hope that once they are in a richer country they will somehow be able to hide themselves and work illegally. No question there is not enough employment in Bangladesh, but that does not justify taking illegal means to go to another country, stay there illegally, and if get stuck expect the poor country to pay for their return back home. In a recent incident, where a number of Bangladeshis were brought back home from a foreign country by the government, the state minister in charge of Expatriate Welfare lamented that he could have taken action against the travel/recruiting agencies involved, had these people cooperated with them. My suggestion to the ministry is to sue these people to get the money spent to bring them back home, or take them to court, as it is evident that they are willing participants of an illegal act.
Needless to say, government should do its best with the limited resources that it has to plug all the loopholes, (for example making it mandatory to put a big sign showing 'do's and 'don't's for employment seekers in all travel/recruiting agents) but unless we raise a social consciousness that people also have a responsibility to abide by the immigration laws at home and abroad, the government actions alone will not bear the desired results.
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