Speakers at a programme have stressed the need for taking necessary measures to implement the Global Compact on Migration (GCM) to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration.
They have also said overseas job seekers mostly are not aware about safe migration and often are falling prey to cheating at the hands of middlemen.
The rights campaigners were speaking on Thursday at the National Consultation on 'Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration-Voice of the Civil Society'. It was jointly organised by the International Organisation for Migration and the WARBE Development Foundation at the BIISS conference room in the city.
Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry additional secretary Ahmed Munirus Saleheen presided over the programme. Senior government officials, leaders of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), representatives from local and international organisations were present.
Mr Saleheen said people should be aware about regular and safe migration. They also were working for welfare of migrant workers through different activities, he added.
Foreign Affairs Ministry director general Nazrul Islam said that there were challenges in implementation of the GCM as it was a non-binding document adopted by the UN member states.
The GCM had not set any deadline to start implementation of its objectives, he said. The source of funding was another challenge for implementing the GCM.
Former MP Mahjabeen Khaled said that the government declared migration as the thrust sector because of its importance to the country's economy.
Since 2009, the government had been taking and implementing various programmes to ensure safe and orderly migration from Bangladesh, she said.
IOM deputy chief of mission Sharon Dimanche, British Council's PROKAS programme's team leader Gerry Fox, WARBE Development Foundation chairman Syed Saiful Haque and BRAC Migration Programme head Shariful Islam also spoke at the consultation.
