Govt plans to send 40 lakh people on job abroad, says minister
Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee
|
|
The government is planning to send some 40 lakh skilled or unskilled people abroad for work during its tenure as part of the Awami League’s election pledges for poverty alleviation by 2021.
The minister for expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, in an interview with New Age also said more than 60 lakh Bangladeshis were working overseas, and the government was planning to send 40 lakh more people abroad by 2013 when the tenure of the Awami League-led alliance government would end. The government has assumed office on January 6.
He also said the government was trying to explore new overseas manpower market.
About 49 per cent of the workers going abroad on jobs are less skilled, Mosharraf, also an Awami League leader, said. The ministry has plans to arrange proper training to develop skilled manpower for overseas market.
‘We have a skills development centre. We also have a catering training centre in Sylhet,’ he said, adding the government has plans to set up a training centre for nurses.
The minister said they were planning to privatise the manpower export sector to bring about more efficiency. ‘All manpower export initiatives will be handled by the private sector. The government will only monitor the process,’ said Mosharraf, who was the first chief engineer of the Rural Workers’ Programme in
He said they would keep an eye on the activities of the private sector centres so that the people could not be deprived or exploited.
As for exploitation of migrant workers by manpower agents, the Awami League’s advisory council member said both the sides, willing to go
overseas and the manpower agents, were responsible for this and the government would monitor the whole process to avoid such incidents.
The minister said aspirant migrants were paying the agencies higher than the fixed rate and he gave an assurance of trying his best to reduce the cost of going overseas. ‘Rules and regulations will, if required, be changed to cut on the cost of sending manpower abroad,’ said Mosharraf, also brother-in-law of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.
He said he recommended migrant workers to form a welfare association in the countries of their residence in keeping with the rules and regulations of the host country to ensure the welfare of migrant workers.
‘It will then be possible for the ministry to keep in touch with them and inquire into their activities and condition,’ said Mosharraf, who was a visiting professor of BUET and worked as the chief technical consultant of the International Labour Organisation in
‘When our workers are linked with incidents abroad we will be able to investigate the incidents and take action against them through the welfare association so that the image of the country could not be tarnished,’ the minister said.
As for allegation against his family of being related to war crimes during the war of independence in 1971, Mosharraf, who has received the prestigious SEIPUP National Award in 1999 for his contribution to social work, brushed aside the allegation, saying some vested interests were out to mislead the people to tarnish the image of the government.
‘My father had never been involved in war crimes. He rather saved the lives of many the Pakistani forces,’ said the minister, who was elected the lawmaker for Faridpur 3 constituency in the December 29 national polls, defeating the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and the rebel BNP leader and former minister Kamal Ibne Yusuf, both of whom were ministers during the BNP-led alliance government.
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___