Editorial
Employment abroad
Ensure safety for women workers
We are all for expanding our global labour market. It ensures employment of our large work force as it also contributes towards socio - economic development of the country. Remittances from workers abroad have been substantial over the years. During the July 2010- April 2011 period remittances was $9587.15 million, registering a growth of 4.3 percent over the same period of the last fiscal.
The recent government decision to send ten thousand female workers to Saudi Arabia as domestic help is a good one provided it ensures the physical safety and security of these women, some of whom may become victims of abuse and deprivation.
Saudi Arabia has been the principal market for Bangladeshi workers which roughly employ around two million Bangladeshis. With recent political crises in a number of Arab countries and bans imposed by some governments particularly of South East Asia on our workers, Bangladesh faces severe overseas employment crisis.
Our concerns over the safety of women workers stem from bad experiences in the past. A Human Rights Watch member informs that there is no provision for domestic help under Saudi labour law. Therefore, they neither have weekly holidays nor is there fixed working hours. Many have to work for years without break. Many also go without payments for months and kept confined inside the house. They are also subjected to physical hardships.
We want the ministry concerned to make it known as to what measures it plans to adopt to ensure protection of our workers especially the female while sending them to work abroad as domestic help.
There should be clear guidelines regarding workers protection, pay and privileges to be agreed upon by the employers and the employees; workers should be trained in their jobs and in the local language of the receiving countries to make communications easy; and increase the capacity of our missions abroad with trained and supportive officials who will be able to handle the employment related issues without much hassle.
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