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In
1990, on the basis of the Emigration Ordinance of 1982, the
Government of Bangladesh created a fund for ensuring welfare of the
wage earners. The Wage Earner’s Welfare Fund was later supplemented
by one of the three rules framed in December 2002 under the 1982
Ordinance. The Fund is constituted with subscriptions from the
migrant workers, interest earned from the deposit of licenses of
recruiting agencies, 10% surcharge of the fees collected through
Bangladesh missions abroad, and personal and institutional
contributions. Needless to say, the bulk of the fund was raised from
the subscription of the migrant workers.
The fund was created with the following objectives:
- Establishment
of a welfare desk at the airport;
- Transfer of
body of deceased migrant workers;
- Providing
assistance to sick, disabled and stranded migrant workers;
- Providing
financial help to the families of deceased migrant workers;
- Providing
legal assistance to the migrant workers through the embassies;
The Fund is to be
utilised for the following purposes:
The
Ministry for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment has
established two welfare desks at Zia International Airport, Dhaka
for facilitating safe arrival and departure of expatriate
Bangladeshis. These desks are providing services to the migrant
workers in getting their emigration clearance. BMET officials are
deputed for 24 hours at the airport desks to deal with the matters
related with expatriate workers. Probashi channel in the airport is
a new initiative of the Ministry to facilitate smooth departure and
arrival of the expatriate Bangladeshis at Zia International Airport.
A bar-code checking for the outgoing migrants have been introduced
in order to prevent illegal migration. Expatriate Bangladeshis are
now receiving transportation facilities introduced for secured and
risk free movement from Zia International Airport, Dhaka to the
inter-district bus terminals after arrival in Bangladesh. Two buses
are providing regular service to this effect.
One of the major programmes financed by the Wage Earners’ Welfare
Fund is the pre-departure briefing of migrant workers. The briefing
session runs for two hours three times everyday and BMET claims that
the coverage area of the session is increasing day by day.
A one- stop service centre is being constructed at Eskaton, Dhaka
with all modern facilities to ensure enhancement of overseas
employment and residential facilities where expatriate Bangladeshis
and their family member would be able to stay for short period of
time in safety and security. The facilities include accommodation,
verification of authenticity of passports, services of airlines,
travel agencies and money exchange centres, medical test, telephone,
fax and e-mail, restaurants, and community centre.
Assistance is also provided to around 15 schools for the children of
Bangladeshi expatriates in the Gulf countries. Currently in case of
death of migrant workers the family receives a one time grant of Tk
20,000 from BMET. Bangladesh Mission in the labour receiving
countries and BMET play the major role with regard to transportation
of the deceased body to Bangladesh. An amount of Tk 100,000 is given
to each returnee migrant worker who has not received any
compensation from his/her employer. Moreover, if he/she receives
less than Tk 100,000 as compensation, the balance amount is
provided.
The Fund is managed by a Board of Governors. It is an
inter-ministerial body consisting of representatives of the Ministry
for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Ministry of Law,
Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and representative of BAIRA. |