The
statement of H.E. Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, the
Hon'ble Adviser for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment
4th
Ministerial Meeting of the Colombo Process Countries
Emirates
Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi
22 January 2008
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
I
would like to, first of all, thank the UAE Government
for hosting this very important Ministerial meeting
of the Colombo Process. This meeting will begin the
Abu Dhabi Dialogue and usher a new era of cooperation
between the labor sending and receiving countries
of the region. My personal appreciation and gratitude
goes to His Excellency Dr. Ali bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi,
the Minister of Labour of the Government of UAE for
his leadership role in making this happen. I would
also like to thank the International Organization
for Migration for their effective support to the Colombo
Process.
Excellencies,
As
we all know, temporary labor migration and remittances
have become an important source of finance in many
developing countries. Official remittance into Bangladesh
exceeded 6.5 billion last year, representing about
6% of our GDP. As many as 4.55 million Bangladeshi
contractual labors are working abroad, in the Middle
East, South East Asia, Europe and North America. While
remittances are an important source of income, it
does not come without a cost. Our contractual labor
spend an inordinate amount - often beyond their means
- to find a job abroad.
The
prospect of higher wages often lure the job-seekers
to undertake huge risks. For them, direct costs may
involve giving up their current employment and incurring
large upfront costs, in terms of agency fees, airfare
etc, to secure the job. Doing a cost-benefit analysis,
the job seekers undertake the risks so long as they
believe - rightly or wrongly - that they can recover
their investment within a reasonable timeframe. It
often takes months, if not years, to recoup their
cost. The families of the migrant workers can face
severe deprivation during the transition phase - the
intervening period between departure and the first
remittance to his or her family. Unfortunately, we
have no mechanism to support the families of the migrant
workers during such difficult times.
The
market for contractual workers is highly imperfect,
characterized by high transaction costs, pervasive
information gaps and misplaced expectations. Recruiting
agents manage to reap abnormal profits, largely at
the expense of the contractual workers' interests.
Market imperfections can also be evident in biased
and unfair labor contracts. Language barriers and
a lack of understanding of the host country's legal
system can make it difficult for workers to seek legal
remedies against unfair labor practices.
Excellencies,
As
you are perhaps aware, the Government of Bangladesh
presented a number of concrete proposals for reducing
the cost burden of our contractual labor at the first
Global Forum on Migration and Development in Brussels.
We recognize that the sending countries need to do
more to protect the interest of their contractual
labour. Our proposal includes the possibility of involving
commercial banks in the contractual labor market.
Banks need to be incentivized to offer cost-effective
loans to prospective workers. But more importantly,
banks can exercise due diligence to ensure that workers
receive the right contract. Involving banks will also
help augment the flow of remittance through formal
channels. The banking sector of the labor receiving
countries can also be involved in the process to make
it a win-win solution.
We
also proposed that labor sending and receiving countries
should work together to make the recruitment process
more transparent and accountable. In many large Asian
labour-exporting countries, private agencies account
for 90% or more of the recruitment and placement of
migrant workers. While these agencies reap considerable
returns on their efforts and investments, they are
often less than forthcoming in protecting the interests
of the contractual workers. Unfortunately, some recruiters
indulge in unfair and unethical business practices
which not only undermines the welfare of the workers,
but also adversely impact the interests of the source
and destination countries.
The
contractual workers cannot, ex ante, distinguish between
good and bad recruiters, especially when there are
no set criteria to measure their performance. They
usually rely on 'word of mouth' information and informal
networks to assess the quality of a recruitment agent.
The recruiters do not value their 'reputation' as
much as they value 'quick profit'. The governments
can only take actions ex post and by that time the
migrants have already faced the worst. The challenge
for governments and policy-makers is to align the
incentives, both in terms of carrots and sticks, to
ensure that recruiters do not engage in bad recruitment
practices. We are hopeful that the Abu Dhabi Dialogue
would work closely to set up benchmarks to objectively
measure the performance the recruitment agents. This
is a must to promote our collective interest.
Excellencies,
The
market for overseas employment is highly competitive,
yet imperfect in many ways. Labor-sending countries
often engage in a cut throat race to gain employment
opportunities for their people. We must stop such
unhealthy competition. We must work together to protect
the interests and well-being of our contractual workers.
There should be a global collective effort to set
minimum wages for contractual labor for different
levels of skills and experience. It is in the best
interest of the labor-receiving countries to introduce
minimum wage, especially to reduce the turnover costs
of labor. In addition to inducing
