Imperilled trafficked workers

This year alone, we have witnessed an alarming increase in trafficking and smuggling of Bangladeshi migrant jobseekers through the Bay of Bengal under false promises of jobs. A recent report by the UNHCR estimates that 53,000 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar have attempted the unsafe sea passage to Malaysia and Thailand this year, during which 540 people died from beatings, starvation or dehydration. As we observed another International Migrants' Day on December 18, it has become more imperative than ever to take concrete steps to address irregular maritime migration flow.
Even though Article 34 of the Overseas Employment and Migration Act, 2013 empowers different authorities, including the local police, elected local representatives and related ministries, to file cases against traffickers, till date no case has been filed under this law. Exemplary punishment must be meted out to fraudulent agents if we are to discourage them from tricking aspiring migrants, an overwhelming majority of whom come from impoverished and vulnerable backgrounds.
We concur with civil society representatives working on migration that the government should create an inter-ministerial and inter-agency committee to prepare and implement an action plan to reduce unsafe passages. In addition, the government, recruiting agents and NGOs need to work together to ensure transparency and accountability of recruiting agencies and migration of skilled labour-power through legal channels.  
Currently, many employers actually prefer undocumented workers for low-paying, unskilled and exploitative jobs. Bangladesh and Malaysian governments should re-evaluate the Government to Government (G2G) agreement, so that a larger percentage of migrants can take skilled jobs in the workplace legally.