A coalition of Bangladeshi migrant workers on Saturday urged the government to immediately implement their 15-point demand to safeguard the rights and dignity of expatriates.
The call came at a press conference where speakers stressed the vital role of Non-Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) in sustaining Bangladesh’s economic growth.
Among the speakers were Abu Sayeed Riaz, a Bangladeshi businessman based in Europe, Fazlul Haq, chairman of Tarun Sanga, Osman Goni Kam from Greece, Faisal Ahmed from Italy and Masbaul Islam from Singapore.
They said Bangladesh received a record US$30 billion in remittances in the last fiscal year which covered around 45 percent of the country’s import payments and played a crucial role in building foreign currency reserves.
The expatriate brothers and sisters have paved the path to prosperity with their sweat and blood, they said.
Yet, the ongoing neglect, harassment, and bureaucratic hurdles they face when they return home is a shameful reality that can no longer be tolerated, the coalition leaders said.
The speakers said NRBs contribute not only by supporting their families but also by strengthening investment, social development, education, and health systems.
But the expatriates and their families don’t get institutional support especially in areas such as passports, documentation, repatriation of bodies, and protection of property, they alleged.
They warned that failure to act could undermine remittance inflows and destabilise the national economy.
Their key demands include: establishing 24-hour emergency hotlines and helpdesks at every Bangladeshi embassy abroad, providing at least 10 years of tax-free benefits on expatriate investments, ensuring speedy passport renewals and issuance of certificates overseas, covering full costs for repatriating deceased workers’ bodies, eliminating political influence and middlemen from embassy services, setting up migrant service centers in every district, offering a minimum 5 percent government incentive on remittances, creating a special police unit to protect expatriate property, providing comprehensive health insurance for expatriate families, and ensuring fast-track immigration counters for NRBs at airports.
Other demands include introducing skill development programs and easy-term loans for returning expatriates to help them reintegrate into the economy.