Missions could be more alert: Faruk
Mon, May 30th, 2011 3:29
Subir Bhaumik
bdnews24.com India correspondent
Subir Bhaumik
bdnews24.com India correspondent
Dhaka, May 30 (bdnews24.com)—The parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs feels the country's missions in the Middle East and North Africa region should have been more alert ahead of the people's upsurge in the 'Arab Spring'.
"That would have helped our government evacuate the large Bangladeshi population residing in the Middle East-North Africa region in good time, but that did not happen," said Mostafa Faruk Mohammad, Awami League lawmaker and senior member of the parliamentary standing committee, on Monday.
"Our people got caught up in the uprisings and the conflict that followed," Mostafa Faruk added.
He is a former High Commissioner to many countries including India.
"That would have helped our government evacuate the large Bangladeshi population residing in the Middle East-North Africa region in good time, but that did not happen," said Mostafa Faruk Mohammad, Awami League lawmaker and senior member of the parliamentary standing committee, on Monday.
"Our people got caught up in the uprisings and the conflict that followed," Mostafa Faruk added.
He is a former High Commissioner to many countries including India.
"Had our missions in that region been more vigilant, we could have planned evacuation strategies well in advance. But the foreign ministry did not have any advance reports from its missions about the public anger building up or the uprisings that followed," Faruk said.
The committee wants the diplomats to be "more vigilant and closely observant" in countries where large Bangladeshi communities have emerged following sustained migration, he told a group of visiting journalists at parliament building in the morning.
He said Bangladesh was considering labour exports to African nations where they can work as sharecroppers for big landowners on a 50-50 crop-sharing.
"That will help these nations tide over food shortages and our people will have a gainful livelihood," Mostafa Faruk said.
In the 1980s, the northeast Indian state of Assam was rocked by a violent nativist movement that led to large-scale killings of mostly settlers of East Bengali origin.
The leaders of that campaign later assumed power by winning an election on the anti-migration plank.
When his attention was drawn to illegal migration of Bangladeshis to other countries in Middle East and Southeast Asia, in which innocent poor people were duped by agents and then heavily harassed by host countries, Mostafa Faruk said these problems will remain "until the world became a global village and people the world over became more tolerant."
The MP said when host countries apprehend illegal Bangladesh migrants, they should be treated in a humanitarian manner.
"They can be held at decently run camps and allowed consular access but if they are employable and there is a demand for labour, they should be given valid papers and employment.
"They should not be penalised because they have already been fleeced by dubious agents," Mostafa Faruk said.
He argued that Bangladeshis were trying to go to countries where there is a demand for labour and they know that from kins and fellow villagers who have gone before them.
Thailand has been particularly harsh on Bangladeshi, rather Rohingya migrants who have been seized and put on their boats on high seas, after the engines are taken off.
bdnews24.com/sbh/bd/1453h
The committee wants the diplomats to be "more vigilant and closely observant" in countries where large Bangladeshi communities have emerged following sustained migration, he told a group of visiting journalists at parliament building in the morning.
He said Bangladesh was considering labour exports to African nations where they can work as sharecroppers for big landowners on a 50-50 crop-sharing.
"That will help these nations tide over food shortages and our people will have a gainful livelihood," Mostafa Faruk said.
In the 1980s, the northeast Indian state of Assam was rocked by a violent nativist movement that led to large-scale killings of mostly settlers of East Bengali origin.
The leaders of that campaign later assumed power by winning an election on the anti-migration plank.
When his attention was drawn to illegal migration of Bangladeshis to other countries in Middle East and Southeast Asia, in which innocent poor people were duped by agents and then heavily harassed by host countries, Mostafa Faruk said these problems will remain "until the world became a global village and people the world over became more tolerant."
The MP said when host countries apprehend illegal Bangladesh migrants, they should be treated in a humanitarian manner.
"They can be held at decently run camps and allowed consular access but if they are employable and there is a demand for labour, they should be given valid papers and employment.
"They should not be penalised because they have already been fleeced by dubious agents," Mostafa Faruk said.
He argued that Bangladeshis were trying to go to countries where there is a demand for labour and they know that from kins and fellow villagers who have gone before them.
Thailand has been particularly harsh on Bangladeshi, rather Rohingya migrants who have been seized and put on their boats on high seas, after the engines are taken off.
bdnews24.com/sbh/bd/1453h
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