Rohingya Lensman: 51 eminent citizens call for release
Photo: Abolfazl Talooni Staff Correspondent Staff Correspondent
Fifty-one academics, human rights activists and lawyers have issued a statement demanding the release of Rohingya photographer Abul Kalam, who they claim landed in jail on Thursday for taking photos of buses departing Kutupalong for Bhasan Char.
Photographer Abul Kalam was brought to the Senior Judicial Magistrate Court in Ukhiya on Thursday with charges of impeding officers from discharging their duties during an incident that happened over seven months ago, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Star.
Organisers said Kalam was sent to Cox s Bazar Jail by a magistrate on Thursday.
Editorial
Host countries should implement a mandatory “migrant protection policy”
File photo of migrants gathering at the Biman Bangladesh Airlines office in Chattogram for their return plane tickets to the Middle East, in August 2020. Photo: Rajib Raihan
According to government data shared by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMRRU), the average monthly return of migrant workers in the country increased by four times in the last three months compared to what it was in the previous five months. Data shows that between April 1 and August 27, some 85,790 migrant workers returned home from 26 countries, while the number of returnees increased to a little over 3.26 lakh as of November 30. While many of our workers were deported due to the coronavirus pandemic, many were forced to return due to a fall in global oil price and job losses in tourism, services and construction sectors in the Gulf countries.
3.26 lakh returned home in Apr-Nov
RMRRU report says monthly average of migrants returning home increased by 4 times in last 3 months
Representational image of Bangladeshi migrant workers. File Photo: Reuters Staff Correspondent Staff Correspondent
The average monthly return of migrant workers increased by four times in the last three months than what was in previous five months, Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMRRU) said yesterday.
Between April 1 and August 27, some 85,790 migrant workers returned home from 26 countries, RMMRU said, citing government data.
The number of returnees increased to a little over 3.26 lakh as of November 30, it said.
RMMRU shared the data while unveiling its report Pattern and Trends of Labour Migration 2020: Achievements and Challenges during a virtual press conference.
Middlemen in Labour Migration: Invisible they cannot remain
Govt seeks to regulate informal service providers to check fraudulence
Representational photo/Star file
The government is considering bringing informal grassroots service providers into the labour migration sector under a framework to tackle fraudulence.
Known as middlemen or sub-agents , they are an integral part of the labour migration cycle despite not being recognised by relevant laws.
They provide at least a dozen types of services to migrant workers from assisting in passport processing to accompanying workers to the airport, according to studies by various migrant rights groups.
This is due to a major gap that exists in the government s pre-departure services to migrants, said a joint report of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and International Labour Organisation (ILO).
news
Bangladeshi workers in Lebanon face immense hardship The New Nation
Staff Reporter :
Thousands of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Lebanon are desperately seeking to return their home as they are passing their days in inhuman conditions in the Gulf nation without work, food and money.
The stranded expatriates are reportedly filling application with Bangladeshi Embassy in Beirut to return to Bangladesh. However, the authorities are yet to devise any plan to send them back.
Lebanon was going through a severe economic and political crisis since the Beirut explosion. The explosion brought immense suffering for expats in Lebanon including Bangladeshi workers. A significant number of Bangladeshi workers have already lost their jobs amid the crisis in the Middle East country.