FE reporter among 13 gets ‘Migration Media Award’

The government will work to encourage Bangladeshi migrants to invest in the country, said Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (EWOE) Minister Imran Ahmad at an award-giving ceremony on Thursday.

To this effect, the necessary infrastructure and awareness campaigns are needed, he said.

He also mentioned that they have made a fund worth Tk 7.0 billion for livelihood programmes of returnee migrant workers. But they are not getting adequate response from workers in receiving the loan.

The Probashi Kallyan Bank has so far disbursed Tk 200 million to Tk 300 million among the returnee workers from the fund. They are thinking about making the process of loan disbursement easy for the workers, he added.

The ceremony was organised by BRAC. Thirteen journalists and one media organisation received the prestigious ‘Migration Media Award’ for their outstanding contribution in 2019 to the migration sector.

The EWOE Minister handed over the awards to the winners at BRAC Center Inn in the city. Maurizio Cian, head of cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh, Giorgi Gigauri, chief of mission of International Organization for Migration (IOM), Bangladesh, BRAC’s executive director Asif Saleh, senior director KAM Morshed and head of Migration Programme Shariful Hasan were present at this event.

Muhammad Owasim Uddin Bhuyan of the Daily News Age was awarded first place, while Md Mohiuddin of the Daily Prothom Alo and Arafat Ara from The Financial Express were awarded second and third places respectively under the national newspaper category award.

Under the local newspaper category, Abu Taher Md Turab of Daily Jalalabad received the award as first, while Faruk Munir (Nur Islam) from Daily Chattogram Pratidin as second and Md Emdad Ullah from Daily Fenir Somoy as third. 

Under the television category, Sabina Yasmin of DBC Television emerged as the winner while Salahuddin Ahmed of Jamuna TV and Ashikur Rahman of News24 Television obtained second and third places. Md Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh Betar was awarded as the winner under the Radio category.

Mansura Hossain of Prothom Alo Online,  Md Kamruzzaman of Anadolu Agency and Saddif Shorab of Bangla Tribune are the first, second and third winners under the Online News Portal category.

Probash Kotha, an online news media organisation; received an award as the first-ever media organisation for its outstanding contribution to the migration sector in 2019.

Recognising journalism in the migration sector, BRAC launched Migration Media Award in 2015. This year Migration Media Award was presented under the European Union-funded Prottasha project, which is implemented by IOM in partnership with BRAC led by the government. 

Participating in the event, officials and representatives from different organisations underscored the media role to raise awareness among mass people.