Eroding Trust,Diminishing Sympathy

From Thai jungles to the Mediterranean sea,
Govt plays deaf to fortune seekers plea.
As inaction causes trouble on foreign shore,
Sympathy for the country is no more.

According to a news report European Union is going to introduce harshest visa policy temporarily for Bangladesh as it failed to deal with illegal Bangladeshis stranded across European countries.Back in 2017,Bangladesh signed an agreement with EU to bring back the illegal Bangladeshi emigrants. As the country failed to live up to its pledges, EU is considering to make harder obtaining the Schengen visa,curbing multiple visa facility, prolong the procedure of getting visa and impose tariff on visas for Bangladeshi diplomats.¹

In the past I wrote a number of pieces---”Need For A William “,”Governance Crisis: From Local Alleys To Foreign Shores”,”Perilous Plight Of Modern Day Vikings”,”A Loosing Scheme”---on human trafficking from Bangladesh and conditions of trapped Bangladeshis abroad. I share some of the nuggets of old pieces here.

In recent years, Bangladeshis topped the list of boat-riding asylum seekers. According to European Union, 93435 Bangladeshis are staying illegally in European countries. Bangladesh strongly contested the figure. According to Ministry of Interior, Italy, 8131 Bangladeshis entered illegally in 2016 and in the first six months of 2017, 8436 Bangladeshis were identified as illegal emigrant^{2 & 3}.

A survey by IOM reveals that on average illegal Bangladeshis paid more than $5,000 to human traffickers to reach Italy taking a perilous boat ride. Dubai-Istanbul-Tripoli turned out to be their preferred route to reach Libya.Traffickers locked them in Libya for one year and forced them to work in homes and restaurants.³

More recently, Tunisian coast guard rescued 443 Bangladeshis from the Mediterranean sea between May 18 and June 10 of this year⁴.

Back in 2018,in USA, Texas news papers were carrying reports how everyday Texas border patrol nabbed illegal Bangladeshis while crossing the Rio Grande river. Casting serious doubts over Bangladesh’s trumpeting of its economic achievements.⁵

Recent addition to human trafficking incident was a Bangladeshi MP who was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment by a Kuwaiti court for human trafficking and money laundering. Not only that many high ranking Kuwaiti officials were also found guilty in such incidents. This insinuates how far and wide such trafficking racket is stretched⁶.

But such mass human trafficking through sea all started in 2014. UNHCR in a report revealed that 25000 Bangladeshis embarked on illegal and risky boat ride to reach Malaysia in the first quarter of 2015. And 5400 illegal fortune seekers were detained in various prisons of the countries bin Asia and Pacific region⁷.

Discovery of mass graves of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Thai-Malaysian jungles and sentence of a Thai General did little to beef-up Bangladeshi efforts to curb the incidence of trafficking.

Sending people abroad is a lucrative trade and government recognizes the industry as “man power business”. There is even a ministry to look after the well beings of the expatriates .

Since it is an industry, all sorts of practices, fair and unfair, are going on here no holds barred. People are so desperate to go to their dream destinations , they are even ready to pay more than the required cost. They are poised to work under harsh conditions and to embrace any situation to make their fortune abroad.

A parasitic class was born out of their desire and desperation. This class exploits the vulnerabilities of would-be foreign workers and share the rents with the corrupt politicians and officials.

Inhumane sufferings of the migrant workers are often ignored as long as remittances are kept coming. Unlike the workers from other countries, the Bangladeshi workers do not find their govt on their sides when they are in trouble in foreign soils.

When a govt evades its responsibility about its own citizens, other countries are less interested to take their responsibility, particularly when the country is not paralyzed by problems.

Govt of Bangladesh is guilty of two counts: first, it allows a modern day slave trade in its soil ; second, it disowns its own citizens when they are in distress³.

As tragedy after tragedy strikes on foreign shore,govt, being guardian and protector of the have-nots, has failed to stop human trafficking.Turning a blind eye to such crime only unfolds bigger catastrophe. Other responsible govts will not sit idle when sheer size of the problem causes unease at their countries. Bilateral relations may survive the twists and turns but sympathy towards Bangladesh may diminish. Suggestion for tougher EU visa policy for Bangladeshis is an indication to that direction.

Notes And References:

1 “Bangladeshider Visae Korakorir Suparish(Harsher Visa Restrictions Suggested On Bangladesh) “,Raheed Ejaj,Daily Prothom Alo,August 27,2021.

2 “Bangladesh Under Threat On EU Visa Restrictions “,Dhaka Tribune,June 25,2017.Link here

3 “Need For A William “,Rezaul Hoque,https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com,July 31,2021Link here

4 “La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux(11 juin --- 18 juin)”,Rezaul Hoque,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com/

5 “Governance Crisis: From Local Alleys To Foreign Shores”,Rezaul Hoque,https://rezaulhoque.wordpress.com,January 16,2019,Link here

6 “Kuwait: Bangladeshi MP Gets 4 Years In Jail,Fined KD1.9 M For Human Trafficking”,Ramadan Al Sherbini,Gulf News, January 19,2021.Link here

7 “Cries In The Wood”,Rezaul Hoque,https://rezaulhoque.wordpnress.com/,May 14,2015.Link here

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(3 mai --- 10 mai)

Selon un reportage, police espagnole a arrêté une bande de trafiquants bangladais qui ont aidé à entrer clandestinement centaines de personnes en Europe. Ils ont demandé $15,000 ou $20,000 aux clients.

Selon un reportage, une dirigeante supérieure de Bangladesh police a été tuée dans un accident au Congo. Elle s'y est rendue pour voir l'opération de Casque bleue de Bangladesh police. La tragédie s'est déroulée quand un camion a percuté son véhicule.

Selon un reportage, police a arrêté un djihadiste de Daech depuis Uttara. Il est revenu au Bangladesh il y a deux mois.

Selon un reportage, Axiata , société malaise de télécommunications, est entré en pourparlers avec son homologue norvège pour fusionner leur opération en Asie. Dans un communiqué Telenor a affirmé la nouvelle causant beacoup de soucis parmi les Bangladais. Il y a seulement trois opérateurs de télécommunications au Bangladesh. Si la fusion entrera en vigueur, il y aura deux opérateurs de service de GSM au Bangladesh. Néanmoins Axiata dans un communiqué s'est dit que opération de Bangladesh était hors de pourparlers.

Selon un reportage, le bilan préalable de cyclone Fani est prêt. Le cyclone a péri 13 personnes et déraciné d'arbre et pylônes de télécommunications. Le ministre de l'agriculture s'est dit que le cyclone avait touché 35 districts provoquant dégâts à 63.000 hectares de champ de riz et de récoltes qui valent Tk 385 millions.

Selon un reportage, un vol de Bangladesh Biman a dérapé la piste d'atterrissage de Yangon aéroport à cause de mauvais temps. Tous les passagers ont subi des blessures.

Selon un reportage, un container s'est renversé en Malaisie tuant 10 ouvriers bangladais .

Selon un reportage, une infirmière a été violée et tuée dans un à bus à Gazipur.

News From Vanuatu

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.