Sufferings of our expat workers

A recent survey suggests that more than half of Bangladeshi migrant returnees face harassments while working abroad. These harassments include wage problems, police pestering, unacceptable treatment by employers on passport or visa related issues and many other. Against the backdrop of the findings, it has become obvious that our Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Ministry, private manpower recruiting agencies, besides our foreign missions abroad, are not doing enough to ensure and protect the rights of our expat workers.
According to the report, around 56.8 percent of the returnees are reported to have faced various obstructions regarding their destination countries, more than 65 percent could not cope with difficulties arising from wage issues and 62 percent of migrants went abroad by acquiring loans or selling their lands. The survey conducted on some 1,200 migrant returnees, both male and female, have published some data and statistics that lead us to understand that the incidence of sufferings by our workforce abroad have not lessened , but in some cases, worsened.
Given the volume of expat workers' remittance, amounting to some $14.5 billion in the last fiscal year, facilitation of overseas labour contracts for our citizens along with regular monitoring of their rights should have been taken seriously. It's an issue that has never been addressed seriously. Overnight solution to the problems of our workers abroad is not possible. But based on comments, data and statistics acquired from the report, the government must strategise a concrete plan and implement those by phases, so that sufferings of our workers abroad are mitigated.