Baseline Survey Report 2014Baseline Publication 2014 Baseline Survey Report-2014-WARBE DF05 To draw...

Promoting Migrants Rights and Livelihood of Potential &Returnee Migrants and their Families in Bangladesh

Baseline Survey Report 2014

Supported by:

THE SURVEY TEAM

COMILLA TEAM

RAOZAN TEAM

TANGAIL TEAM

Syed Saiful HaqueChairman

Abdur RofiBaseline Consultant

AWO International e.V.

MD. Faruque AhmedSecretary General

Ahsan HabibAccounts Officer

Moinuddin AhmadInformation &

Fundraising Coordinator

Rifat TanjilaProject Coordinator

Jafar UllahTeam Leader& Counsellor

Sabina AkterSocial Mobiliser

Safayet HossainField Organiser

& Adviser

Rahul TalukderTeam Leader& Counsellor

Morsheda AkterSocial Mobiliser

Mainul IslamField Organiser

& Adviser

Sirajul IslamTeam Leader& Counsellor

Nazma AkterSocial Mobiliser

Subrata SarkerField Organiser

& Adviser

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Sincerely,

Syed Saiful HaqueChairmanWARBE Development FoundationDhaka, Bangladesh

WARBE Development Foundation would like to appreciate the generous support provided by the AWO International e.V. for the project named “Promoting Migrants Rights and Livelihood of Potential and Returnee Migrants and their Families” under which this study was carried out. The content and information presented in this report do not and should not be interpreted as the official standard of AWO International e.V. in Bangladesh.

This study is a product of the efforts and contributions from several individuals and institutions. We gratefully appreciate the officials of the various national departments who collab-orated in this study and the Project Coordinator, MISC Team Leaders & Counsellors and field level staff of the three project areas: Tangail, Comilla and Chittagong, who provid-ed conducive environment to facilitate the implementation of the study in the fields.

We are grateful to Mr. Abdur Rofi, who worked with us as a Consultant and has given us his valuable time during data collection, report writing and conducting workshop for this study. We also grateful to the field assistance provided by the AWO project staff who assisted us during and through-out the survey.

We also acknowledge the administrative support provided to the study team by WARBE DF Senior, Central and Field level project staff. I would also like to express my special thanks to AWO International e.V., especially to Mr. Felix Neuhaus, and Mr. Arjun Gurung for providing excellent support for implementing this project in Bangladesh and through WARBE Development Foundation as local partner.

Baseline Survey Report-2014-WARBE DFBaseline Publication 2014 01


1. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OFWARBE DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION:

2. AWO-WARBE SAFEMIGRATION PROJECT BACKGROUND:Migration has become an important emerging sector in Bangladesh and plays a significant role for the economic development by receiving remittances. In 2013 alone, it contributed almost 11% of total GDP in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a major labour sending country in the world. Being a member of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), most of the workers migrate to the Middle Eastern coun-tries. According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), over 5 million Bangladeshis’ migrated in the GCC states from 1976 to 2011, mainly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Every year, an average of 226,439 Bangladeshis’ leaves their country for overseas employment. In 2013, migrant workers have sent US$ 14.26 billion through legal channel1.

According to BMET a total 51.31% migrant people are less skilled, 15.00% were semi-skilled and only 2.52 % are professional2. Bangladeshi migrants had to spend highest recruiting cost for migration. A study showed that, a migrant worker needs to spend around US$ 2,000 to 2,500 for migrating to Middle East3 for a two to three-years contract job.

Thus, safe migration has now become a big challenge for the migrant workers since a large number of people faced exploitation and distortion of information by middlemen or unscrupulous recruiting agencies. Migrants often face difficulties in the host coun-tries like, forced labour, abuse, low wages, lack of social protection and benefits and esteem and experience deplorable working conditions. It is often reported migrants sending remittance through ‘hundi’, a risky and an illegal channel.

The Welfare Association for the Rights of Bangladeshi Emigrants (WARBE) Development Foundation has been established by Bang-ladeshi returnee migrants in order to enhance the status of the migrant workers, to ensure the recognition of their Rights and to foster the link between safe migration and the socio-economic development of Bangladesh. It is a non-profit, non-government organisation which was founded in 1997 and has been registered in 2007 under the NGO Affairs Bureau of Bangladesh, bearing no. 2281. Since its establishment, WARBE DF has been implementing a number of developmental projects related to safe migration with different reputed International NGOs and donors and have represented Bangladesh in different International Networks and Forums. WARBE is now implementing a safe migration project titled “Promoting Migrants Rights and Livelihood of Potential and Returnee Migrants and their Families in Bangladesh” in three major migration prone areas named Comilla, Tangail and Chittagong districts in Bangladesh with the support from AWO International e.V., Germany. In 2013, a pilot project was carried out successfully and the full project initiated from 1st January 2014.

1. Bangladesh Bank Annual Report 2013, www.bangladesh-bank.org2. BMET Database, 1976-2013, www.bmet.gov.bd3. The Daily Star, March 19, 2013, Sustaining gains from labor migration, www.thedailystar.net


Figure 1: Geographical locations of target areas.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTING AREA(S)

6. PROJECT IMPLEMENTINGLOCATION:The project is now implementing its activities through Migra-tion Information and Support Centres (MISCs) in three major migration prone areas of Bangladesh - Tangail, Comilla and Raozan (Chittagong).

4. PROJECT GOAL:To ensure the migrants rights and improve their family livelihood.

5. PROJECT OBJECTIVES:Increasing safe migrationImproving the financial situation of the migrants and their families and re-integrate the returnee migrants in their communities.The government supports the migrants and the migrants enjoy the benefits of revised Overseas Employment & Migrant Worker’s Act 2013.

3. TARGET POPULATION:The major target populations of this project are the potential and returnee migrants and their family members, different govern-ment officials i.e. DEMO, DO, UPO and BMET. Thus, for identifying their needs, institutional shaping of different social structure, and fixing target as per project plan and log-frame; the baseline study has conducted its survey among the following target people:

A questionnaire survey was carried out among 300 House-holds(HH) in the three project areas i.e. Comilla, Tangail andChittagong where each district covered 100 HH.

Potential and outgoing migrantsReturnee MigrantsLeft behind family members of migrants

To identify the behaviour of these irregular channels and to raise awareness among the existing, returnees and potential migrants, WARBE Development Foundation has conducted a baseline survey with the support of AWO International e.V. in May 2014.

The major objective of this project is to ensure safe migration, protecting migrant rights as well as to develop sustainable livelihood for potential, returnee and family members of the migrants. The project is aimed at creating equal access to knowledge and capacity development trainings and activities, awareness raising meetings, remittance management meet-ings, pre-departure trainings, and advocacy and counselling services for the migrants. Besides, the project has also been focused into identification of labour discrimination, abuse, cheating, and exploitation by unscrupulous middlemen of the recruiting agencies for the purpose of ensuring safe migration.


The Figure 1 in page 3 represents the geographical areas of the project’s target locations where the baseline study was carried out –Tangail, Comilla and Chittagong (Raozan Upazila). These areas are selected due to high frequency of annual migration occurring than anywhere in Bangladesh. The graph below shows the district-wise migration scenario in Bangladesh (Source: BMET, database, 2013):

To analyse the safe migration scenario and socio-economic condition of migrant families in the target communities, both qualita-tive and quantitative data collection procedures have been followed in this baseline survey.

Primary data: Face-to-face interview with randomly selected respondents from the target group and filling up questionnaire. For this study, respondents were chosen through non-probability sampling. For this purpose, a structured questionnaire was devel-oped through a series of consultation workshops and meetings.

Secondary data: The secondary information or data were collected from different reports, Newspaper Articles, Publications, Research Articles etc. from Bureau of Manpower, Expatriate and Training (BMET), RMMRU, ILO, IOM, etc.The total sample size was expected to be 300 respondents, randomly selected from the list of Migrant families. The survey team has collected data from 100 respondents from each project implementing Upazila. For the geographic location, the survey team spread out in 5 randomly selected unions from each Upazila (Comilla Sadar, Tangail Sadar and Raozan Upazila) and visited 5 randomly selected villages from each union. The confidentiality of the respondents was strictly maintained in this study.

After the collection of primary & secondery data, the data were validated and cross-checked through triangulation process by performing FGD and KII with different stakeholders and the analysis was done by using SPSS.

Figure 2: District-wise migrants in Bangladesh, 2013

7. BASELINE SURVEY STUDY:

7.2. Study Areas:

7.3. Study Methodology:

7.1. Study Objectives:

Assess the level of safe migration process, regular channel and migration cost.Assess the present socio-demographic and -economic situation of the targeted migrant households and communities.Assess the status of community participation especially the target groups in different social structures.Assess and identify the current livelihood options and opportunities, income, remittance utilisation of the target communities.Assess the status of present legal support from BMET, DEMO, UPO and other stakeholders for the victimised migrants.

COMILLA

CHITTAGONG

0 - 2%

2 - 4%

4 - 6%

6 - 8%

8 - 10%

10 - 16%

TANGAIL

B’BARIA

DHAKA

CHADPUR

% O

F M

IGRA

NTS

The sources of data were collected from the three target locations:


To draw the picture of the migration process and the socio-economic conditions of the target people, the following jargons have been used as definitions for facilitating the Project staff as well as the readers of this report.

Potential Migrants: In using the term “potential migrants” it means those who are in possession of passports. Everyone is a potential migrant however it is not possible to address all the people within project activities. Therefore, to avoid confusion and to address more specific groups of beneficiaries, only passport holders (general passport holders), middle-lower to lower class and age limit from 18 to 50 years were considered as potential migrants.

Outgoing Migrants: Those who have completed registration with BAIRA registered Agencies and possess a DEMO registration number are considered as outgoing migrants.

Returnee Migrants: Those who have travelled abroad to earn money under the terms of labour employment contract in a foreign country for a certain period of time and have returned to Bangladesh. In relation to this project, it only considered those returnees who came back to Bangladesh at least 8-10 years ago and have settled within their communities permanently and possess no intentions of going abroad again.

Left-behind Family Members: Family members/close relatives (considered here the blood relations also) of migrant workers. The survey has focused on those family members to identify how the remittances are managed and how they relate their financial activities with Improved Financial Conditions.

Awareness: It is used to ensure migrant rights as human rights which can only be achieved through Safe Migration. Awareness could be raised through courtyard meetings, CBO group discussion meetings, meetings with community leaders, observing various/special days, distributing of IEC materials, information dissemination through mass media, local campaign, etc. All these programmes help to build knowledge, capacity, sincerity among the migrant and general awareness on safe migration process and their rights.

Community Based Organisation (CBO): An organisation that consists of formal or informal structures where anyone within a community can become a member and dedicate himself/ herself dealing with social issues for the wellbeing of the community. Community Based Organisations (CBO) are operated by an executive body who are elected by the member of the CBO executive committee members.

Productive assets: Assets which appreciates value of developing resources over time and which produce cash in return in future. Such are the example of assets – spending money on education, savings, buying land/gold, setting up new businesses, building houses, etc.

Social Structure: A group or an association or a social unity formed by people in a community to contribute goodwill into their society as well as to practice strengthening collective unity among themselves to solve numerous problems and to overcome barriers. Usually, people of similar socio-economic classes joined together to form a social structure.

7.4. Conceptual Framework:


After collection of primary data through structured questionnaire survey and analysing the secondary information; the data has been analysed using SPSS software. The data were validated and cross-checked and the outcomes were presented in graphs and tables. The baseline followed the following three outcomes of the project for analysing the findings:

Considering the above mentioned outcomes, the key study findings are highlighted below:

i. Safe migration has increasedii. Migrants and their families have improved their financial situation and returnee migrants are reintegrated in their communitiesiii. Migrants are supported by the government and enjoying the benefits of revised overseas Employment & Migrant Worker’s Act - 2013.

a. Since the survey was performed within the project areas, it reveals that Raozan Upazila (21.8%) has the highest number of people (from age group of 21 to 45 years old and approximately 25% female and 75% male) migrating abroad than in Tangail Sadar (18.7%) and Comilla Sadar (17.3%).

b. The findings regarding returnee’s status in these three Upazilas are showing that Tangail Sadar (7%) has the highest number of returnees in compared to Comilla Sadar (4.9%) and Raozan Upazila (6.3%). This population of returnees or returned migrants have resettled and re-integrated in communities.

c. Although, the study reveals that male migration (96.2%) is higher compared to females (3.8%) but it also confirms that females are equally interested to migrate abroad.

7.5. Study Findings:

Outcome-1: Safe Migration Increased


e. According to the study findings, 32.8% of the respondents admitted not receiving job offer/contract letter before going abroad which is one of the major criteria for safe migration. While, 55.1% respondents (most of them are returnee migrants) mentioned that they did not register at DEMO before going abroad.

f. According to the finding, there are 60.3% of the respondents who were aware about skill training institutions but did not receive any training and 6.6% of the respondents were not aware about it. Pre-departure training is one of the important trainings for safe migration, but 71.5% (out of total responses from returnee migrants) of the respondents did not attend it.

Figure 3: Status (in %) of Migrants, Non-migrants, Returnee and Potential Migrants in target locations

0.0% - 10.0% 20% - 30% 40% - 50% 50% - 60%

20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0%

TANGAIL COMILLA

TOTAL

CHITTAGONG

4.9%

18.7%

75.7%

6.3%

21.8%

71.9%

7.0%

17.3%

75.3%

6.0% 19.0% 74.6%

MIGRANTRETURNEE NON-MIGRANTPOTENTIAL MIGRANT

Figure 4: Status (in %) of Safe Migration in three project areas.

14.1% 12.4% 8.0% 11.5%

78.3% 34.9% 91.0% 73.8%

7.6%

CHITTAGONG COMILLA TANGAIL TOTAL

32.7% 1.0% 14.8%

100.0%

90.0%

80.0%

70.0%

60.0%

50.0%

40.0%

30.0%

20.0%

10.0%

0.0%

SAFE PARTIAL SAFE UNSAFE


g. Only 8.9% from the total respondents mentioned not getting their passports and visas from recruiting agencies before their departures.

h. Regarding SMART/Clearance card from BMET, 21.3% respondents did not receive the card before their departures and 11.1% respondents were not aware about the existence of such card.

i. 92.5% respondents went abroad through the help of middlemen and private recruiting agencies. They did not use government recruiting agencies.

j. Data collected regarding the knowledge about addresses of Bangladeshi Embassies revealed that 42% of the respondents were not knowledgeable about embassy addresses in foreign countries, while 17% of the respondents were never concerned about knowing it.

a. Re-integration in a community is an important indicator of this baseline survey. Many of the migrants are unable to re-integrate properly in their communities due to social stigma. The average rate of returned migrants not able to re-integrate in a community is 64.3% in contrast to 35.7% of them re-integrating in communities.

b. According to findings, 36.67% returnee mentioned that they got better work opportunities at home, 13.33% mentioned that they started businesses at home, 10.00% mentioned that they were the survivors of cheating cases, 3.33% mentioned not having financial abilities to recover the financial losses (migration costs) or investments for in-home businesses, 26.67% mentioned that they were physically injured, 10% of returnee mentioned about insufficient salaries/unpaid salaries and less facilities they received during their stay abroad

c. The Baseline study data also reveals that the average monthly income of migrant families (that directly use for family expenses or in-country investment) in these three projected areas is BDT 26,922 per month. In this regard, average monthly income of migrant families in Chittagong is higher than the other two districts. The survey finding shows that 48.4% of the respondents, which is majority, are dependent on the remittance and are unable to utilise them into developing productive assets. In all, total population of 5.6% respondents of migrant families are allocating there remittance in productive sectors.

Outcome-2: Migrants and their families have improvedtheir financial situation and returnee migrants arere-integrated in their communities

Figure 5: % of contribution of remittance in family income.

60

50

40

30

20

10

021-30%0% 31-40% 41-50% 51-60% 61-70% 71-80% 81-90% 91-100%

21

1.4 3 2.4 3.16 7 7.7

48.4


a. To ensure the migrant rights, Bangladesh government has enacted Overseas Employment & Migrant Worker’s Act - 2013 in October 2013, where according to study report, 96.2% of the respondents possess no knowledge about the revised Act.

b. Regarding violation of rights, 19% of the respondents were cheated by their family members or relatives or middlemen in mone-tary terms, 18% of respondents experienced torture abroad, 13% of the respondents were injured where 8% were injured in their workplaces while abroad.

c. Only 17.9% of migrant people are aware about their rights. They had claimed in the government and others. Data has collected from Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) showed that government has solved 80.8% of migrant cases in 2013.

Outcome-3: Migrants are supported by the governmentand enjoying the benefits of revised OverseasEmployment & Migrant Worker’s Act - 2013.

Figure 6: Status of respondents’ awareness about Overseas Employment & Migrant Worker’s Act - 2013

AREA WISE RESPONSE1.2

1

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0

UNAWARE AWARE

96.20%

AWARE 3.80%AWARE 10%

90%

CHITTAGONG COMILLATANGAIL TOTAL

% O

F RE

SPO

NSE


The baseline has conducted based on three projects outcomes and each outcome contains either a single or a multiple indicators. There are outcomes, indicators and major baseline findings are given below-

1. Calculated by % returnee have of willingness going abroad2. No data at UPO and DEMO levels. Calculated based on data at BMET

7.6. Baseline Outcome Indicators:

Outcomes ResultStatements

Indicators BaselineFindings

Outcome 1

Outcome 2

Outcome 3

Safe migration has increased

50% of migrant people will be migrating with Regular channel, minimum cost, no exploitation.

14.8 % safe migration, 73.8 % partially unsafe, 11.5 % unsafe

90% of accessing to justice (Union Parishad Office/ DEMO/ BMET arbitration) from cheating cases filing in (UPO, DEMO and BMET) of 3 working areas.

Migrants and their families have improved their financial situation and returnee migrants are reintegrated in their communities

1) 10% of average amount of monthly income of Migrant families increas-es. 2) Allocation of remit-tance at least 50% on Productive Activities (education, savings, buying land, gold and starting business, etc.). 3) 50% of returnee migrants living in the community.

BDT 26,800 (present monthly income)3.5 % migrant families are allocating 40% remittance and are using on produc-tive activities.35.5%1

80.8 %2Migrants are supported by the government and are enjoying the benefits of revised Overseas Employment & Migrant Worker’s Act - 2013


Migration has long been an important livelihood strategy for the people of Bangladesh and has evolved as a typical and important feature of the country. Every year, an average of 226,439 Bangladeshis leave their country for overseas employment where 52.23% of Bangladeshi migrant workers are less skilled. They are sending in billions of dollars through legal channels to Bangla-desh, contributing significantly to the socio-economic development of Bangladesh as well as the country of destination. Also, majority of them are less-educated and poor. They generally leave the country with fewer choices and to look for livelihood options abroad in order to support their families.

7.7. Relevance & Challenges:


Nevertheless, the dream of a better job with high wages leads them to unscrupulous and fraudulent activities of middlemen and recruiting agents or to face exploitative situations in home and host country. Situation analysis and case studies reveals that even the victims fail to show any evidence and hardly get justice after being cheated despite the regulation of Migration Act 2013. This has created a situation in which both recruiting agents and their sub-agents can commit fraud and evade responsibility. Further in the process of migration, a good number of potential migrants are cheated and lose a large part of their assets.Therefore, it has become a major responsibility and challenge of this project to educate potential migrants about safe migration and minimise their vulnerabilities. So, for ensuring the safe labour migration some criteria are needed to fulfil, like:

It is easy to provide services to fulfil the above mentioned criteria to the potential migrants through different channels, but in reality, the challenge for the project is to reduce interventions of middlemen/ unregistered recruiting agencies during their migra-tion process. Their interventions divert many of the uneducated migrant workers towards unsafe migration. Also, many of the middlemen are well-established and influential within the local communities and in such reference, the decision-makers of migrant families seek for their counselling and act according to their opinions.

Although, the baseline findings hardly reflect data strongly on potential migrants, but out of 291 respondents, it was discovered that 42% of the migrants have been subjected to monetary fraudulence by the middlemen; whereas many of them could have been potential migrants. The data also contradicts the data collected from BMET which states that the institution has solved 80.8% of cheating cases in the year 2013. From the FGD, it was seen in the grassroots level that many of the cheating cases were solved locally by means of threats or at arms point. Many of the cases were politically involved and for that reason, these vulnerable migrant workers resort to remain silent and absorb large financial losses with social humiliation.

The second major relevance of the project is to re-integrate the returnee migrants back into their communities and empower them with the knowledge of revised Overseas Employment & Migrant Workers Act 2013. The baseline data showed that, 64.3% of the returnees could not re-integrate properly within their communities-either for social causes or for financial causes. Thus, it became a challenge to re-integrate them successfully through creating socially accepted values and employment opportunity.

Thirdly, it shows from the baseline survey that 48.4% of the respondents (migrants’ family) are directly dependent on the remit-tances. The remittances are mainly consumed by debt reimbursement and daily expenses. Housing and land purchase come in second, as well as the acquisition of luxury items and re-migration costs. The problem of unprofitable utilisation of remittances have repercussions on the local economy and the non-migrant members of the community often suffer from increasing prices of essential goods due to the income gap between migrants’ family income and non-migrants’ family income.

To mitigate financial crisis of the migrant families, it requires organising Remittance Management Meetings at field level where they receive counselling on the rightful use of remittance and lower down dependency on it and increase productive activities. The participation of women are important in this issue, since they are the primarily manager of remittances.

Thus for fighting irregular migration, and protecting the rights of migrants, and also protecting the potential migrants from being cheated, exploited, the baseline suggested some activities which could control the situation. This will be achieved through aware-ness promotion, skill development, pre-decision or pre-departure orientation, financial education, and organised CBO (Communi-ty Based Organisation). The involvement of returnee migrants in the implementation of activities is intended to promote their role in transferring know-how, skills, expertise, thus fostering the link between migration and development. Activities that target the families of the migrant workers are designed to address the use of remittances in more productive way, thus contributing to the development of the socio-economic condition of migrant workers in Bangladesh.

Registering in a BMET networks through Union Parishad Information Centres or DEMO. Learn about loan facilities from PKB (Migrants Welfare Bank, Bangladesh) and government approved cost of migration.Collect overseas job contract/offer letter from a registered recruiting agency before departure.Learn to process all papers/documents by themselves.Develop skills from government approved TTC or private training institutes.Attend to Pre-decision Training/ Pre-departure Training.Go for a thorough medical check-up from an approved medical institution.Apply for visa from the designated embassy/ high commission.


From the findings of the baseline survey, the major recommendations made which will accelerate the progress and maintain the quality of the project are given as follows:

The project must be consistent in conducting Awareness and Courtyard Meetings on routine basis. Also, the implementing organi-sation (WARBE DF) must strengthen its relationships and network with its stakeholders who would act as referrals and refer the potential migrants to the MISCs. The result of the study shows women are equally interested to migrate abroad and to look for better scopes of income sources. But cultural and religious barriers, lack of education and knowledge hinder the scope of female migration. Although, the percentage of female migration in the project areas is only 3.8% but it has increased over the years. This also indicates women are willing to go abroad for job opportunities and is needed awareness to encourage them to migrate successfully and securely.

Focus is required in raising awareness and knowledge level of safe migration process among the migrant people and their families. Rigorous communication could help in raising awareness and grow attention and interest among the migrant communities in the project areas, including various CBOs to generate word-of-mouth which is a strong form of communication. Also, each MISC could make a representative out of each potential migrant who would tell others to visit MISCs like a transcending wave. It is also impor-tant to develop IEC materials at each MISC. Considering the status of educational level it need to increase facilitation of informa-tion in the form of multimedia and electronic media.

From the baseline survey, it is discovered that most potential migrants lack skills because they were unaware about skill training facilities within the project areas. Intervention of the middlemen could be a reason why the migrants not attending trainings. Through awareness activities, the MISCs are expected to guide potential migrants into attending capacity development programmes and develop linkages with the Government training institutions and other TTCs

i. Increase Participation of Potential Migrant in Safe Migration Project:

iii. Provide Capacity Development Training for potential migrant:

ii. More focus on awareness raising activities:

7.8. Recommendation from the Study:


According to the findings of the survey, 71.2% of the respondents never attended Pre-Departure Trainings before their departures. In this regard, it is strongly recommended to the migrants to attend PDT at DEMO on a regular basis and put scores for those who are willing to migrate abroad safely. Also, it would be more helpful to show Power Point presentation of the PDT booklet during Pre-Departure Trainings.

iv. Emphasis on Pre-departure Training:

v. Aware migrants about DEMO registration:

vi. Reduction of migration cost:

vii. Migrant family members are encouraged using remittance in productive sectors:

viii. Create mass awareness about Overseas Employment and Migration Act-2013:

DEMO registration is pre requisite criteria for Safe Migration. The MISCs must inform and refer every potential migrant to get registered at the local DEMO Office. Also, during the Awareness Meeting every month, the MISC staff must aware the potential migrants and educate them that the importance of getting registered will reduce the risk of becoming undocumented migrant in foreign countries.

According to the baseline information, 92.5% of the respondents admitted that they have migrated abroad with the help of middlemen or recruiting agencies. Therefore, there is a high chance for spending a fortune and be cheated. Awareness must be made among the migrants to consult with an experienced returnee and attending to community meetings will help to calculate the cost of migration to a destination country. Referrals could be established among the stakeholders to form a group/batch of migrants who will be visiting the same country, like G2G Agreement between Bangladesh and Malaysia which will reduce migra-tion cost much further.

The project will consider the large population of non-migrants who require counselling on developing productive assets and utilisation of remittances. In the light of this finding, MISC is expected to strengthen awareness activities and be assisted by the Migration Advisory Committee. Attending to counselling on productive assets will help to enhance remittance utilisation from 5.6% to 40% for the surviving migrant families.

Potential migrants must be aware about the significant of the Act and learn how the Act will protect them during their migration period. By incorporating the whole Act in the PDT booklet as a chapter would be helpful which will provide valuable lesson to the potential migrants during their Pre-Departure Trainings.


NationalMigration Network

DistrictMigration Network

MigrationAdvisory Committee

LocalCBO Network

MigrantsEntrepreneur Cooperative

ix. Identified Social Structure:

8. Conclusion:

The baseline also identified the sustainable social structure for protection of migrants’ rights. The are two types of stakeholders in this project: National-level Stakeholders and District-level Stakeholders. The social structure that identified both at Central level (National) and District-level has been presented below:

The project progress will also measure through monitoring the formation of these social structure and their activities both at Centre level and MISC level. As per the survey, the importance of forming these structures found for ensuring the safe migration. These structures will play important roles for advocacy and lobbying to protect the migrants’ rights, ensure safe labour migration, successful re-integration and effective utilisation of remittances.

Though the study was conducted on a small number of respondents, however the findings were helpful, determining the socio-economic status of migrants and their families. In addition this study addressed the awareness level of the migrant family members, their income status, and remittance utilisation on productive assets. The survey finding also assess the knowledge of potential, returnees and their family members about legitimate procedure of migration as well as the source of assistance they get regarding migration.

Migration tendency and scope of migration in different countries to work in different sectors are rising but majority are unskilled labour and unaware about various aspects of migration, which we have revealed in the studied areas. Female members in the migrant community were also similarly potential for migration in the survey areas but socio cultural norms were their major constraint for migration.

In case of safe migration scenario in project areas remains low, few number of migrants completed migration process in safe ways. Migration through unauthorised recruiting channel is high rather than government and authorised recruiting agencies. Migration through partially safe condition is high in these areas because migrant fulfil several safe migration criteria not all that are founded in the study. Study also shows majority of the respondents get job offer/contract letter, BMET clearance card, know employers’ addresses and also get visas and passports before their departure; but do not complete safe migration criteria including not receiv-ing DEMO registration, not receiving any institutional training, Pre-departure training (PDT), not using government and authorised recruiting agencies and also unknown about embassy addresses before their departures.

Since migration cost is high and majority of the migrants are poor, it becomes tougher for them to manage that much amount of money for migration. Migrant people faced cheating cases through different channels. But study analysis shows that cheated by middlemen and relatives in monetary fraudulence is comparatively higher than in other cases. People in the studied areas are not much conscious about access in legal support from government and private organisations. They have limited ideas about govern-ment services, BMET functions and authorised recruiting agencies’ addresses.

Figure 7: Social Structure Concept

NATIONAL LEVEL DISTRICT LEVEL COMMUNITY/ LOCAL LEVEL

(Coordinated from Centre) (Coordinated from MISC) (Coordinated from MISC)


1. CIA World Facts books, Bangladesh Economy Profile 2013, Accessed 15th May 2014,

7. Gender Analysis of Migration from Bangladesh, Dr. Md. Nurul Islam, BMET, Bangladesh, 20108. Study on the International Demand for Semi–skilled and Skilled Bangladeshi Workers, TVET Reform Project, Maxwell Stamp Ltd. Bangladesh, April, 2010.

9. References:

Income and expenditure scenario of migrant families show that maximum portion of family income comes from remittance and majority of the families carry out their monthly expenses with this remittance. Migrant people cannot spend much portion of remittance for developing productive assets because earning source is mainly based on remittance.

Returnees are interested for remigration because of limited scopes of re-integration in the society and to get better job and salary.

The study result also shows very few cases has been filed in BMET but within these cases BMET has solved or provide assistance to more than 80% of migrants. Local level DEMO, DC office and UPO have no extra cell for migration support and services. No case has been filed in the DEMO, DC office and UPO. Potential, returnees and their family members have no idea about recently enact-ed Overseas Employment and Migrant Workers Act - 2013.

(http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/working-hard-money-bangladesh-faces-challenges-large-scale-labor-migration)

(http://www.banglapedia.org/HT/T_0052.htm)

3. Banglapedia: TangailSadarUpzilla, Accessed Date 10 April, 2014,

4. Banglapedia: CommillaSadarUpzilla, Acceded Date:10 April, 2014,


5. Banglapedia: RaozanUpzilla. Acceded Date: 10 April, 2014,


6. Category-wise Overseas Employment from 1976 to 2013, Bureau of Manpower,Employment and Training, Accessed 12 April 2014,

(http://www.bmet.gov.bd/BMET/stattisticalDataAction)

2. Migration Policy Institution, Working Hard for the Money: Bangladesh Faces Challenges of Large-Scale LaborMigration, Accessed 20th April 2014,

(http://www.indexmundi.com/bangladesh/economy_profile.html)

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