Most of the RMG factory owners are not paying any heed to the call earlier made by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) for providing information about their foreign employees. According to the latest data of BGMEA, the apex trade body of clothing industry has 4,296 members who have employed 40 lakh workers, of which 80% are women. “As of yesterday, only 47 RMG factories, out of 4,296, provided information about their 150 foreign employees,” said BGMEA Vice President Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu. He said, “I don’t see any reasons for not providing information about the foreign employees as ultimately theBGMEA members will have to give information about their foreign workers.” The BGMEA will send a further notice to members to remind about the issue, he reminded. On October 7, the BGMEA had issued a circular asking its all members to provide information about foreign employees, who are working in their RMG units across the country by October 15. Information includes name of the foreigners, passport number, nationality, contact number, residential address, name of the institutions working for and the arrival date. The decision was made following the back-to-back killing of Japanese nationals Kunio Hoshi and Italian citizen Tavella Caesar in Rangpur and Dhaka that raised security concerns for the foreigners staying in Bangladesh. Immediately after the two recent killing incidents, the country’s law enforcing agencies undertook an initiative to prepare a database of the foreigners for their security ground. “Since the RMG sector is still in the hand of the first generation businessmen who lack expertise, foreign nationalsare working here taking that advantage,” Exporters Association of Bangladesh President Abdus Salam Murshedy told the Dhaka Tribune. Besides, a good number of foreigners are staying in Bangladesh to provide technical support and after sales service for the imported machines, he said. But the good thing is that young generation is now coming up into the clothing industry wit higher skills and educational degrees, he added. According to the RMG sector people, there are about 15,000 foreign individuals, who are working in the country’s textiles and clothing industries as merchandisers, designers, marketing experts and technicians. Finance Minister AMA Muhith has recently said, “Foreign workers are taking away money worth US$4bn from various sector of Bangladesh.”
