Migrant rights activists urged the government on Sunday to provide necessary support to the women domestic helps who have returned from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) after facing different types of maltreatment in workplaces.
Female migrant workers are returning home almost every day but the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment does not take their sufferings into consideration, they observed while speaking at a national consultation on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) at the city's CIRDAP Auditorium.
Bangladesh Civil Society for Migration in collaboration with the Migrant Forum in Asia organised the consultation.
Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Programme chairman Shakirul Islam said the ministry was yet to take into account the interests of the female migrants who are returning home becoming victims of abuse.
He said Wage Earners Welfare Board did not provide any assistance for the abused female workers.
Mr Islam presented a keynote paper on Migration and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal in which he said the Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) 10.7 stipulates safe, orderly and responsible migration.
"The ministry must be more dynamic to ensure rights of the workers," he viewed.
Farhad Al Karim, a representative from BRAC's migration programme, said abused female workers were returning home almost every day from the KSA, adding the government should ensure quality of migration and send female workers after ensuring their security abroad.
Manusher Jonno Foundation's senior programme manager Sarwat Binte Islam said basic rights of the migrant workers, including the documented and undocumented ones and those who are victims of trafficking, must be protected by GCM with due importance.
Bangladeshi Ovhibashi Mohila Sramik Association director Sumaiya Islam said information of safe migration must be sent to the marginalised section.
She demanded that data of the returnee migrants be protected.
BCSM co-chair and WARBE Development Foundation's chairman Syed Saiful Haque said it was responsibility of the government to implement relevant laws and policies to ensure rights of the migrant workers.
Describing the Global Compact on migration as an agreed document, he said at least 193 countries of the globe have agreed to set 23 goals with 187 actions on compact aimed to protect the rights of the migrant workers.
Speaking as the chief guest, co-chair of the parliamentary caucus on migration and development Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia said migrant workers must be united to realise their rights.
"They should not be divided into various parties or groups," she said.
Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit director Marina Sultana who moderated the inaugural session said the consultation was aimed at protecting and promoting rights of the migrant workers and recognising their contribution.
Alexis Nadine Bautista of Migrant Forum in Asia delivered her welcome address while WARBE Development Foundation's director Jasiya Khatoon presented keynote paper on Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
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