Manpower recruiters threaten strike protesting ‘police harassment’
The protesters also sent a memorandum to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal
Calling for an end to "harassment" using anti-trafficking laws, recruiting agencies have threatened to stop sending workers abroad from next month, which would be a serious blow to the country's foreign exchange remittance revenues.
The manpower recruiters made the demand at a human chain in front of the National Press Club in the capital on Sunday.
The protesters also sent a memorandum to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.
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Speaking at the human chain, the recruiters said if they did not get a positive response from the authorities on stopping the harassment, they would declare tougher programmes like putting a stop to sending workers abroad from 1 November this year.
They also demanded an amendment to the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act, 2012.
They called for the inclusion of a provision for workers to leave the country following clearance from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET), and thereby remaining outside the purview of the anti-trafficking law.
Recruiters said they want exemplary punishment for human traffickers but expressed concern that numerous recruiting agency owners are getting discouraged from sending workers abroad.
Due to harassment under the human trafficking prevention law, the government's target of sending workers abroad is being hampered, they added.
"It is not human trafficking to send workers abroad after they have smart cards issued by BMET. If workers have any grievances, they can seek redress under the migration law," M Tipu Sultan, proprietor of Rajdhani Trade International, said at the event.
"Even after sending workers legally, recruiting agency owners are being arrested as human traffickers, their lifetime achievements tarnished."
The memorandum also noted that in 2019, the expatriates' welfare minister already wrote to the home minister stating that any complaint brought against recruiting agencies would be outside the scope of the trafficking prevention law.
Around 1,500 recruiting agencies are members of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies.
