Editorial Desk :
The United Arab Emirates on Sunday inked a deal for recruiting between 1,000 and 2,000 female household workers a month from Bangladesh, which is being considered a major breakthrough. Dhaka is considering the move as the resumption of manpower market in the oil-rich Gulf nation, the second largest manpower destination for Bangladesh. Manpower export to the UAE had almost stopped after it refrained from issuing visas to Bangladeshi workers since August 2012, alleging malpractices in recruitment process and the use of fake documents by Bangladesh nationals. Senior officials travelling with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s delegation in the UAE told the media that the UAE agreed to initially hire at least 1,000 female workers a month and the number could be gradually increased.
But it has to be said that it is not honourable to treat human beings as exportable commodity.
It was not necessary for the Prime Minister to go to United Arab Emirates for any manpower agreement. They need cheapest labour from Bangladesh. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has failed to protect female migrant domestic workers from beatings, hunger, overwork, underpayment and forced labour, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday last, urging authorities in the Gulf State to end the traditional kafala visa sponsorship system, which perpetuates much of the exploitation.
In a new report, HRW said the kafala system, which decrees that a domestic worker cannot move to a new job before their contract ends without the employer’s consent, trapped many women in abusive conditions. There are at least female 146,000 migrant domestic workers in the UAE, most of them from Asia and Africa. “The UAE’s sponsorship system chains domestic workers to their employers and then leaves them isolated and at risk of abuse behind the closed doors of private homes,” said Rothna Begum, Middle East women’s rights researcher at HRW. “With no labour law protection for domestic workers, employers can, and many do, overwork, underpay and abuse these women.”
The idea of exporting our people to work as ordinary labourers is not respectable. It is a failure that we have not created jobs for our own people within the country. Bangladesh instead should focus on improving our education and technical education systems so that our human capital is ultimately of higher quality. The countries like the US, UK and Canada, which have provisions for taking in skilled migrants, e.g; by getting H 1 B1 visas in the US or Tier 2 visas in the UK. Many countries – particularly our neighbouring country India, are exporting their skilled manpower by these methods.
This is no credit for our government that how many workers will be taken by which country. They take labourers according to their needs because their own people will not work as low level labourers. On the other hand, it is also true that our unemployed young ones are desperate to find job opportunities in other countries. It is heartbreaking as well as humiliating to see our workers be treated as forced labourers in some countries.
Be that as it may, we are strongly opposed to sending our women as domestic maids. It is the responsibility of the government to create jobs on priority basis for our women.
Exporting our jobless young men and women is not a matter to be proud of. But since we are benefited as they earn foreign exchange for us, our government and the embassies should make it their responsibility to ensure good working conditions and see that they remain free from exploitation. In this regards, the government and the embassies do nothing in extending helping hands to our citizens working abroad. In most cases, our workers are treated inhumanly.
