Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Bangladeshi workers in the Maldives are facing different types of problems including wages related discrimination, poor living condition and workplace abuses.
Those who are undocumented and less-skilled face more vulnerability, shows findings of a RMMRU study on Wednesday.
Attending the research findings dissemination event experts and sector insiders suggested sending skilled workers to that nation to ensure quality migration that will help to reduce such vulnerabilities.
Besides, the country will also be benefitted with more remittances.
They stressed the need for proper initiatives to create more demand-based skilled manpower focusing on the Maldives market as there is a potential of such jobs in hotel tourism sector.
The study showed as many as 33 per cent of the respondents worked in the services sector such as hotels and resorts, construction sector accounted for 25 per cent, day labourers for seven per cent, domestic workers and fisheries for two per cent each.
Remaining 31 per cent were engaged in water transport, sand extraction, porter, restaurants, service stations and the like.
On average 45 per cent stated they are facing problem in fixation of salary and increment. For undocumented migrants it was 52 per cent. About 18 faced problem in accessing accommodation.
About 18 per cent of the respondents stated that they at some point were subjected to physical or verbal abuse at workplaces. The percentage is higher for undocumented migrants which is 24 per cent.
Nearly 25 per cent of them said that they had witnessed or had the knowledge of other workers of Bangladeshi origin experiencing the problem. In this instance as well as many as 35 per cent of undocumented workers reported such abuse.
On the other hand, majority of the Maldives-bound workers is dependent on sub-agents or brokers that also increase sufferings to them. The experts also suggested official channel to send workers to the Maldives.
The RMMRU findings showed only 4 per cent workers went Maldives by recruiting agencies, while 59 per cent cases were by sub-agents/dalals, 36 per cent by relatives; another 4 per cent claimed that they migrated to the Maldives on their own initiative.
Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) conducted the research on Bangladeshi Labour Migrants in the Maldives. The study was commissioned by The Asia Foundation. A total of 250 returnees and 120 current migrant workers participated in the study.
Md. Obaidul Haque, associate professor, Department of International Relations at the University of Dhaka, and professor Shahab Enam Khan, Fulbright Research Scholar, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Delaware jointly conducted the research.
C R Abrar, executive director of the RMMRU moderated the event, while Md Shahidul Alam, director general of Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training was the chief guest.
About 100,000 Bangladeshi workers are working in the Maldives. However, the island nation remained stopped hiring less-skilled workers from Bangladesh since 2019.