For all the wrong reasons Bangladesh has been made a news item in the tiny island of Vanuatu. For more than a month, 101 Bangladeshis have been detained by the Vanuatu immigration authority for illegal entry. It appears that they have been victims of human trafficking. Traffickers lured them to offer better jobs in Australia but dumped them in that little known island.
The tragedy of perilous boat riding Bangladeshis and Rohingyas dying in Thai and Malay jungles still rankles us. Despite growing awareness and taking bevy of security measures, the incident of Vanuatu once again tarnished our image abroad. It is a memento of unruly labor market of Bangladesh. And a reprobation to enhanced measures to curb human trafficking at home.
Earlier serious flaws at airport security caught every one off guard. On several occasions many people managed to compromise various security systems at airports by taking guns on board of plane. In the wake of this security controversy, India asked for deploying armed security personnel in the flights between India and Bangladesh.
Certainly not a good inkling towards a normalcy in security situation in the civil aviation sector whose reputation came to close scrutiny after UK had listed key Bangladeshi airports unsafe. Announcement of winding up of operations by two regional airlines on cost grounds during the same week contributes to the negative image of our civil aviation industry.
A Vanuatu court will decide on the deportation of the stranded Bangladeshis. Few of them had any idea of that country. One person is an RMG businessman. Even he stepped into the trap of human traffickers who operate at ease inside Bangladesh. These people did not check or failed to know where they were heading for. Illiterate ones and literate ones behaved in the same manner.
Same fate had already been met by other Bangladeshis in Libya, South Africa and in Malaysia. Traffickers held them against their will and tortured them for ransom. While traffickers taking full advantage of prevailing conditions at home, ignorance of migrant workers is partly to blame for keeping alive this clandestine trade.
At least, some government organizations or NGO can take up the task to inform them. With prefatory knowledge about the country, traffickers will not be able to take advantage of their credulity. Since the digital divide is growing, not everyone is able to dive into net and glean the necessary information. In a rent-seeking and corruption-ridden country, I do not expect probity from our government and private offices. But they can acquiesce in joining hands in awareness building campaigns. Moreover, such initiative can also help bridging the cultural gaps. For instance, workers' welfare ministry can offer free orientation courses to migrant workers on foreign culture, historical events, cultural sensitivities,laws, do's and don'ts in a foreign land and tips on assimilation.
At times, these things become important than the skill sets. Singing the national anthem of the hosting country at a stadium , offering home-made snacks from a tray to the supporters of a major football team, joining the procession of a key cultural event , singing few lines of popular local numbers at a cultural event , inviting neighbors and friends at home on the occasion of religious or cultural festival and take part in collective initiative in resolving a neighborhood issue are keys to assimilation. This lack of cultural assimilation, rather than having a particular skill, is responsible for failure to integration. And knowledge of foreign culture does not predispose a migrant worker to cheating.
The Vanuatu incident entails that we should initiate tailor-made cultural courses for our workers. It is a must if we do not want to see our remittance warriors end their days in penury in foreign shores.