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4 years ago

97pc of women migrant workers unaware of formal services regarding migration

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About 97 per cent of the aspirant women migrant workers do not know about the formal services regarding migration at the community level in the country, a study revealed Wednesday at a virtual consultation. 

Of the total respondents, only five per cent know about training on planned, safe and orderly migration available for women in the community.

Besides, all the respondents who are informed about the services knew that these are provided by union parishad or upazila parishad, while only two respondents were aware of the NGO services.

The baseline study on promoting safe migration for the women migrants was jointly conducted by Care Bangladesh and WARBE Development Foundation (WARBEDF) from February to April of this year.    

It covered 10 unions under Nawabgonj and Keranigonj upazillas. Some 220 female workers participated as respondents in the study.

The findings showed that nearly 60 per cent of the aspirant women migrant workers receive information about the migration process from returnee migrants, relatives, friends and family members.

The remaining 40 per cent of women get information from union parishad, technical training centres and District Employment and Manpower Offices (DEMOs), the respondents said.

The research was conducted aiming to fill the gaps and opportunities in the current policy framework and capacity building needs of aspirant women workers. 

Women face many hurdles during the migration process. Some of these preclude them from availing services for safe and orderly migration, the study mentioned.

In the programme, migration experts and activists stressed the need for ensuring proper information about the safe and orderly migration process.

Apart from positive aspects, risk factors of labour migration abroad should also be shared with the aspirant migrant workers, they said.  

In its recommendation, the study mentioned that the actions are very much category-specific such as for labour migration, trafficking etc. There is a lack of a comprehensive framework that could contribute to safe and regular migration, including the issues of gender-sensitive migration.

Mostafa Sorower, Care Bangladesh programme manager for promoting safe migration for the women in Bangladesh project, presented the study findings, while Humaira Aziz, director of women and girls empowerment programme, moderated the discussion.

Syed Saiful Haque, chairman, and Jasiya Khatoon, director of WARBEDF and migration activists of different organisations spoke at the programme.

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