Reducing cost of migration

THE steady flow of remittance from Bangladeshis working abroad is vital for growth of the national economy. Remittance from the expatriates is the second highest revenue earner after exports. It is estimated that nearly 8.0 million Bangladeshis are working in the Middle East alone. But despite their contribution to the economy the migrant workers get very little in return from the government which is really unfortunate. One of the issues in this regard is cost of migration. Often we come across news items in the media on tragic stories of people being cheated or overcharged by the middle men in the name of employment abroad. Most people have to manage a large sum of money charged by the brokers by mortgaging their property or borrowing with a high rate of interest. 
So the least the government can do for these ill-fated migrant workers is to reduce the cost of migration so that the risk involved is also reduced to some degree. In fact, reducing migration cost is essential. The unskilled workers, unlike semi-skilled and skilled workers, are unable to directly contact the recruiting agents, so their cost of migration is unusually high. There is also a lack of awareness among migrant workers for which they are easily cheated by dishonest middlemen. It is, therefore, important to train our manpower before sending them abroad. The whole system of migration should come under a transparent process so that the aspiring migrant workers are not cheated or harassed.
Iqbal 
Shajahanpur, Dhaka