Promoting Decent Work through Improved Migration Policy and its Application in Bangladesh

International labour migration is an important employment and foreign exchange earnings strategy for the economy of Bangladesh. Since 1976, over 6.3 million Bangladeshis have found employment abroad, mainly in the Middle East. The 2008 global economic crisis has had an adverse effect on Bangladeshi migration for employment, with substantial reduction in new foreign job offerings. However, the numbers returning home were not as large as expected and remittances from foreign employment continue to be robust. Remittances reached US $ 9.01 bn. in 2008 and US $ 10.72 bn in 2009. Today, Bangladesh migrant workers are working in more than 100 countries all over the world from the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, East and South-East Asia. These gains have not come without challenges, constraining the full potential that migration may contribute to the country. These challenges include the excessively high fees charged by recruiting agencies from migrants especially for low skilled jobs; comparatively low wages for Bangladeshi migrant workers due to the concentration of hiring in low skilled categories ; and pervasive vulnerabilities to discrimination, exploitation and abuse during overseas employment. These challenges were highlighted dramatically under the global economic crisis. These challenges need to be addressed in a coherent manner to maximise the benefits and reduce the costs and negative impacts of labour migration. The legal policy frameworks and institutional machinery in Bangladesh have, however, not kept abreast with the consequences of a rapid rise in foreign employment, and are challenged by the inadequacy of services to protect and provide support to migrant workers and their families. The present Project entitled “Promoting Decent Work through Improved Migration Policy and its Application in Bangladesh” aims to contribute to sustainable economic and social development of Bangladesh through technical cooperation in strengthening national efforts to improve migration policy and its applicable programmes. This initiative involving other international and national development partners is anchored on the key principles of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration, the United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) and other international instruments which underscore the importance of migration in an overall programme of decent work and development and reaffirm the importance of migrant workers’ protection in the overall migration programme strategy. The proposed project follows a phased approach with an initial period of three years. The project places strong emphasis on strengthening the governance of labour migration in Bangladesh to include: (a) strengthening national policy and institutional frameworks; (b) improving the operational efficiency and effectiveness in overseas employment promotion, including the recruitment regulation and awareness raising at central and local levels; and, finally, (c) developing better information and assistance services for migrant male and female workers while in their foreign assignments and upon return. An opening phase of four months is envisioned prior to full project implementation. In July 2008, the ILO and the MEWOE organised a regional symposium in Dhaka with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) on the opportunities and challenges confronting labour migration in South Asia and in particular, discuss how these opportunities and challenges might be addressed in different country contexts. The symposium agreed that issues and challenges confronting Bangladeshi migration need to be addressed in a coherent manner to maximize the benefits and reduce the costs and negative impacts of labour migration. The symposium proposed a number of actions deemed imp

Project symbol

BGD/11/01/SDC

Admin unit

CO-Dhaka

Start date

01/01/2011

End date

30/06/2015

Total allocation

3500000

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

3417536

Development Partners

Switzerland, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

Country/Countries

Bangladesh

Outcomes

Promoting fair and effective labour migration policies