Government may lift of Ban on
Domestic Workers
Bangladesh considers Exporting
Women, for Foreign Exchange
Tabibul Islam
DHAKA:
Amid continued criticism from activists, the government of Bangladesh
is now considering lifting a four-year-old ban on sending women
abroad to work as domestic workers.
The ban was imposed by the government in the wake of widespread
reports of physical and 
sexual
abuse of domestic workers in Middle Eastern countries, where most
of the 3.2 million Bangladeshi migrant workers are found.
The bulk of the country's migrant workers - 700,000 - work in
Saudi Arabia. But
state minister for expatriate welfare and overseas employment
Quamrul Islam said on Sep. 11 that the actual lifting of the ban
would come only when the government can be satisfied that conditions
for domestic workers in labour recipient countries have improved.
He said the ministry is collecting data and is in the process
of contacting some labour importing nations before finalising
its decision.
The government had earlier lifted restrictions on female nurses
working abroad, but the ban on domestic workers - whose nature
of work in private homes makes monitoring of abuses difficult
- remains to this day.
Reports that the government is about to lift the ban have drawn
mixed reactions. ''It is good to know that the government is considering
lifting the ban on foreign travel for women workers,'' said women's
activist Rashida Ameen, recognising that overseas work is a lifeline
for many people looking for better economic opportunities.
She believes that the 1998 ban on allowing women to work overseas
as domestic workers ''discriminated'' against women's freedom
of movement. But, she added, the government should first take
measures to protect female workers from harassment and humiliation
in foreign countries.
Some of the most common complaints of abuses by women working
abroad involve being tricked into prostitution, rape by their
employers, having to work longer than 12 hours per day, non-payment
of wages and verbal and physical abuse.
Some labour recruitment agents say that restrictions on the export
of female workers are not really effective anyway - a total ban
cannot be enforced and this only encourages irregular migration.
''Stopping the legal flow will only increase women trafficking,''
said a labour recruitment officer, who asked not to be named.
In fact, despite the official ban now in place, around 45,000
Bangladeshi women have left to work illegally in Persian Gulf
countries since 1998, an unnamed official at the Bureau of Manpower,
Employment and Training said.
This compares to 14,000 Bangladeshi female workers who were legally
employed in foreign countries between 1991 and 1998.
To go overseas to work, Bangladeshis have been taking advantage
of a loophole in the law that allows them to have women leave
the country as their wives and sisters, the government source
said. Women are being sent abroad by dishonest labour exporting
agencies with
forged passports and false marriage registration certificates,
he added.
Indeed,
harsh economic realities and lack of job opportunities at home
continue to drive many poor people, including women, to try their
luck in foreign countries, says Ameen. Thus, she says, the solution
lies in better negotiations with labour-receiving countries and
improved protection for workers, instead of an outright ban.
Hasna Islam, a local college professor, says that there is ''no
justification for keeping the restriction on the export of domestic
maids on the grounds that a handful were abused''.
An emphasis on training women travelling abroad and improved counselling
and vigilance offered by embassy staff would greatly minimise
the risk of their abuse in foreign countries, she adds.
But addressing issues of abuse is not easy for labour-exporting
countries like Bangladesh that are economically dependent on the
hard currency that migrant workers send back every year. Last
year, remittances sent by Bangladeshis working abroad reached
1.99 billion U.S. dollars.
Prof Azad Chowdhury, former vice chancellor of Dhaka University,
expresses concern that recipient countries in most cases are doing
very little to protect the basic human rights of migrant workers.
He stresses the need for multilateral protection under the United
Nations that would compel host countries to respect the rights
of migrant workers, adding that bilateral labour agreements failed
to have any real impact.
There is in place the U.N. Convention on the Protection of the
Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which
has been signed by 10 countries including Bangladesh.
But 10 more signatories are needed for it to come into force,
and many host countries have not signed it because they are wary
that it would encourage more immigration into their countries.
