A NATIONAL DAILY has reported that the government pays no attention to the country’s migrant workers who toil abroad to boost the economy without getting proper treatment during sickness or suffering injuries at work. While the country’s GDP outlook is increasing riding on the back of the vigorous remittance inflow, the government’s indifference to the unsung heroes plights and pains is pathetic, morally unwelcoming and economically distressful. In our observation, no government has made any investment on migration; but the untrained workers take all the risks themselves to purchase future for their family and the country in exchange for hard labour. The government must take proper moves to ensure the remitters health safety in the workplace and medical treatment after returning home.
As the migrant’s health issues are being neglected by the host countries, many workers return home with chronic and communicable diseases, including AIDS, and workplace injuries without proper treatment. The migrant workers also do not get proper medical treatment in home country as the government shows no interest in their well-being. The Minister concerned also admitted that the government lacked a coherent policy to protect the migrant workers’ interests. Such negligence only points to the fact that we are only interested in their hard earned foreign exchange. Right campaigners said that even young migrants come back dead mainly due to working without protective gears and unhygienic living conditions abroad. The overall scenario of the migrant workers rights violations and health danger are not tolerable, despite this, labour attachés and other officials in diplomatic missions do not paid attention to the migrants.
Remittances from more than 10 million citizens abroad are one of the key sources of foreign exchange, a lifeline for us. In 2014-15 fiscal, the migrants sent $15.3 billion, the highest ever in a single year, while the remittance inflow was $1310 million in last December. The on average remittance inflow to Bangladesh is many times higher than aid flows and FDI. So, the government should take vigorous diplomatic moves to ensure a healthy workplace for the unnoticed heroes in abroad and free medical treatment in the home country.
There is no more important area of cleaning up than the issue of migrant labour force’s health safety. We also endorse the rights campaigners demand to provide compulsory health insurance coverage to all the workers before they leave the country to work abroad so that at least on return home they could get the needed medical treatment. Not only the government, civil society, media all of us need to work together for the craftsmen of our economy. If we can ensure a minimum level of human rights, including basic health services, for them in abroad and home, we think this is likely to increase the growth of Bangladesh.
