Migrant rights groups on Saturday called for ensuring workplace safety before sending the workers abroad as they face different health hazards there. They also urged the authorities concerned to discourage the recruiting agencies from sending the workers with risky jobs in the wake of the growing rate of occupational hazards. They made the call while speaking at a dialogue on ‘Occupational Safety of Bangladeshi Migrant Workers’ organised by OSHE Foundation at Dhaka Reporters Unity. S M Morshed, vice-chairman of OSHE Foundation, moderated the programme where Akram Hossain, joint secretary of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, Syeda Rozana Rashid, associate professor of International Relations at Dhaka University, Syed Saiful Haque, chairman of WARBE Development Foundation, and Hassan Ahmed Chowdhury Kiron, chairman of Debate for Democracy, were present. OSHE executive director A R Chowdhury Ripon presented a keynote paper in the programme. Referring to the official data, rights activists said more than 27,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers died in last 12 years and most of them died of stroke, heart attack and workplace accidents. They said migrant workers don’t get proper health service abroad. For this reason, a good number of Bangladeshi workers die there every year. Many of them are suffering from different diseases and they are sometimes forced to go back home with disabilities or serious illness. Bangladeshi workers are taking heavy workload abroad, but get poor accommodation facilities, they said, adding that even though there is a migration protection act in the country, the workers don’t derive benefit from it. They demanded that the government should allocate budget to strengthen labour wings and employ a counsellor especially for providing service to health related issues. They also recommended awareness campaign, proper health training and check-up for the workers.
