As per government account, there are more than 12 million Bangladeshi workers abroad but the responsibility to ensure their safety and security depend on the labour welfare wing. Though Bangladeshi workers are in 168 countries, the Bangladesh missions overseas have only 29 labour welfare wings. Of these, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Italy have two labour wings. Migration specialists believe that to ensure rights of labours, more welfare wings are needed.
They also feel that more manpower is needed in the existing wings. Minister for expatriate welfare and overseas employment, Imran Ahmed said that a proposal to increase manpower has been made.
Labour welfare wings deal with workers problems abroad, provide solutions, support in running legal cases, send list of Bangladeshis in foreign prisons to the government, send back bodies of deceased workers, recover compensation from employers etc.
Bangladesh has missions in 77 countries; of these, 59 are full fledged embassies and others have missions.
Bangladesh does not have any diplomatic mission in 135 countries.
Countries with labour welfare wings include: Qatar, Libya, Oman, Malaysia, Bahrain, Singapore, South Korea, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Brunei, Greece, Australia, Egypt, Spain, Switzerland, Maldives, Russia, Iraq, China, Thailand, Mauritius, Kuwait and Lebanon.
At the labour wings there are 43 diplomatic officials and 145 assistant officers and staff.
Private research organization Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (BAMRU) has said that more female officials are needed in the labour wings.
From January till November 2019, 97,430 women workers went abroad.
Director of BAMRU, Merina Sultana, said: “More women officials are needed in countries where women are going to work.”
Expatriates’ Wefare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmed, said: “We have made a proposal to increase manpower in the labour wings and are trying to appoint people locally; if that is possible then we can serve more people.”