Multi-stakeholders related to Bangladesh apparel workers abroad on Tuesday started discussing the ways to protect the rights of migrant workers as a large number of them were reportedly abused and harassed in the receiving countries, the organisers said.
The organisers were trying to set core principles for responsible recruitment and employment of the migrant labours, said CR Abrar, the executive director of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit in Dhaka University.
The core principles provisions that the recruitment agent or employer would not charge the migrant workers any fee or deposit and health and safety measures will be made available in the languages of the migrants.
Derek Mackay, head of supplier management of the Arcadia Group Limited, in the roundtable urged the employers who hire migrant workers to recruit directly from the source countries instead of recruitment through agents.
The roundtable organised by the Institute of Human Rights and Business and the RMMRU at a city hotel is convening multi-stakeholders, including senior representatives of a select group of global apparel brands, their suppliers, Bangladeshi recruitment agents and officials concerned, representatives of migrant workers and non-governmental organisations.
'This is the new approach to protect the rights of our migrant workers by the employers abroad,' the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training director, Nurul Islam, told New Age after attending the roundtable.
International brands such as NEXT, Arcadia and Levis, Gap, Inditex, Marks & Spencer, Nike, Wal-Mart and Mauritian suppliers also joined the roundtable to explore how to mitigate the risks facing migrant workers and address the challenges for business dealing with poorly regulated recruitment agencies, one of the organisers told New Age.
Several retailers have expressed a need for addressing risk mitigation strategies with respect to recruiting and protecting migrant workers, sources attending the roundtable said.
The secretary general of the Bangladesh Association of international Recruiting Agencies, Ali Haider Chowdhury, who attended the roundtable, told New Age that it was important to have government-to-government agreements with receiving and sending countries to protect the rights of migrant workers.
The organisers earlier held multi-stakeholder roundtables in the labour receiving countries — on January 25 in Mauritius and in March 2010 in the United Kingdom.
The roundtable will end today with the Dhaka declaration.
Source : New Age
