THE refusing loan grants to the returnee migrants for rehabilitation by the Probashi Kalyan Bank (PKB) has become a matter of concern as the specialized bank was established in 2011 only to assist the country’s remittance heroes, a local daily reported. The migrants have been systematically devoid of loans as they often fail to provide any collateral with the loan applications. Ironically, the state-owned PKB since its inception has extended rehabilitation loans only to 161 workers on their return home while more than nine lakh workers came back home over the last seven years. The promise and performance of the PKB are below the expectation and thus needs drastic promotion of loan, proper guidance, monitoring and evaluation.
The PKB has also extended migration loans to 29,996 outgoing workers. Rights activists pointed out that tough collateral conditions and high-interest rate make it virtually impossible for the workers those are interested to work abroad getting access in PKB’s loans. Managing Director of PKB said as the bank does not get eligible borrowers the number of its rehabilitation loan recipients is very low. He, however, said if the government maintained a database of returnee workers it would be easier for the PKB to extend rehabilitation loans to eligible applicants.
We see no successive governments paid attention to the country’s migrant workers who toil abroad to boost the economy without getting proper treatment during their sickness, suffering injuries at workplaces, or after returning home. While the country’s GDP size is increasing riding on the shoulder of the vigorous remittance inflow, the government’s indifference to the unsung heroes plights and pains is pathetic, morally unwelcoming, and economically distressful.
Such negligence only points to the fact that government is only interested in their hard-earned foreign exchange. But we shouldn’t forget that migrants’ given money runs the wheel of our economy.
