Regularising middlemen will deter malpractices in manpower export: Stakeholders

Regularising the middlemen is crucial to deter the malpractice of sending workers abroad under false pretence, observed stakeholders.

Besides, such a move will elevate their role from the identity of "broker", they said at a roundtable on ethical recruitment on Monday at the Parliament Members Club in Jatiya Sangsad.  

The middlemen play a vital role in finding and sending potential migrant workers from around the country, the migration experts pointed out at the event organised by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) in collaboration with the Parliamentarian Caucus on Migration and Development and the Bangladesh Civil Society for Migrants (BCSM).

In the keynote speech, Tasneem Siddiqui, chairperson of Dhaka University's political science department, suggested that registering the sub agents [middleman] can be done by the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) or by the district employment and manpower office.

Another way can be – the BMET will provide registration to the sub agents who will be nominated by Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), Tasneem, the Founding Chair of RMMRU added at the event, held under the SIMS project of Helvetas and supported by the Embassy of Switzerland.

Emphasising the need for sub-agent registration, lawmaker Barrister Shameem Haider Patwary, also chairman of Parliamentary Caucus on Migration and Development, said, "We realise that middlemen need recognition as they play a vital role in sending migrant workers."

He added that if the middlemen are brought under a regulation, irregularities and false commitments while sending workers will decrease.