• The key note paper was presented by Mr. Rashed Al Hasan, Vice-Chairman, Centre for Inclusive Development Foundation (CIDF). Mr. Hasan highlighted some issues such as migration and diaspora in Bangladesh context, remittances and development, history of Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), and the key thematic issues of GFMD 2016 to be held on 10-12 December in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Later Mr. Hasan raised some issues for discussion.
• The Agricultural Extension Officer of Chunarughat Upazilla suggested that Government could reduce the cost of migration and the local government representatives such as Upazilla Chairman, Union Parishad[1] Chairman and Union Parishad (UP) Members could monitor the cost of migration. Besides, the government could involve Upazilla Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and local government representatives to identify the registered agents of the recruiting companies.
• The member of local UP mentioned that usually it take Tk.275,000 for a visa of UAE. He also suggested that investment awareness building among the remittances recipient families is necessary.
• The Agriculture Officer of Chunarughat Upazilla suggested that the Government could develop a database of migrants with the help of local NGO and categorise them according to skills and upload it in the websites. The recruiting countries could visit this website and communicate with the respective potential migrant.
• Some participants suggested for media campaign to make aware the potential migrants about costs of migration and the remittances recipient families to invest remittances in productive purposes.
• To identify the fake agents of the recruiting companies, Mr. Rashed Al Hasan suggested that whether SMS services of mobile phone could be used to cross-check the authenticity of registered agents. All participants agreed with this suggestion.
• Some participants suggested that the migration policy of the government should clearly mention that how to control the recruiting agency.
• Officials of NGO suggested that Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) could be involved to develop skills of the migrants specially women migrants.
• A female NGO worker explained the reasons for migration of women workers from Bangladesh. She mentioned that most of these women are repressed by their husbands and other family members. She suggested that these women could earn good amount of money in the country if get skill development training.

Mr. Khalilur Rahman expressed his gratitude to Mr. Rashed Al Hasan for his detailed presentation and moderation of the session. He thanked Mr. Biman Barua, Upazilla Chairman and all participants for attending this important seminar. He also thanked BASUG and CIDF for supporting this event. Finally he thanked his colleagues of ENDEAVOUR for all logistics arrangements for the event.

Participants List

[1] Union Parishad is the lowest tier of the local government in Bangladesh.