‘Safe migration for Bangladeshi migrant workers’ project
UKaid and AusAID funded the ‘safe migration for Bangladeshi migrant workers’ project under the strategic partnership agreement (SPA). This project aims to raise awareness at the community level. The migration forums work as community pressure groups and also arrange social arbitration, taking necessary steps to extract the compensation for deceived migrants from the middlemen. Cases of forgery by recruiting agencies are forwarded by safe migration facilitation centres (SMFCs) to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET). Sub-district and union-level workshops are held to sensitise government officials to provide better support to migrants. Six SMFCs are providing safe migration-related, direct and referral support to migrant workers from 17 districts of Bangladesh.
Safe immigration for Bangladeshi Workers project
BRAC’s ‘safe migration for Bangladeshi workers’ project is funded by Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) and managed by World Bank. This project aims to reduce vulnerability of migrants and their family members, while reducing dependency on middlemen by establishing and strengthening community-based organizations (CBOs) and local NGOs. The project provides capacity building support to the CBOs and NGOs to provide knowledge, information, and professional/life skills to potential migrants. It also assists families of migrants in managing remittances.
Establishment of re-integration and referral services for returnee migrant workers
The establishment of ‘re-integration and referral services for returnee migrant workers’ project is funded by UN Women. The project’s aim is to promote and protect rights of returnee migrant workers, particularly women and vulnerable men. The project targets three districts of Bangladesh that are prone to have more women migrants. The project will establish actions for re-integration, referral services for activating provisions of re-integration, and referral services for vulnerable returnee migrants, especially women. Additionally, the project will develop networks and build the capacity of government, NGO and private sector groups in order to effectively and efficiently provide socio-economic re-integration support.
Safe migration facilitation centre project
BRAC started its intervention on protecting the rights of migrant workers since 2006. The first initiative started with the project named ‘safe migration facilitation centre’ supported by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF). The project was implemented from 2006 to 2011. The project’s main activities were the establishment of safe migration facilitation centers (SMFC)s, raising awareness in communities as well helping migrant workers with various skill enhancement training. One of the significant achievements of the project was to ensure the rehabilitation of returnee workers from Libya.
Advocacy for safe migration and abating labour trafficking
The Winrock International funded ‘advocacy for safe migration and abating labour trafficking’ project. The project was carried out from July 2010 till June 2011 with the objective of creating an enabling environment for safe labour migration by motivating stakeholders to reduce vulnerabilities present in migration processes. The community-level advocacy effort resulted in positive changes on anti-trafficking issues. This project’s continuous policy advocacy with other organisations was one of the main influencing factors for the Government of Bangladesh to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families on 24 August 2011.
ILO supported project for internal women migration
BRAC migration programme has implemented various steps to address violence against women (JP VAW) supported by International Labor Organization (ILO) in a three-phase project. In the first phase, the migration programme carried out awareness orientations for domestic workers. In the second phase, after successful workshop with stakeholders for message building and material development, a mass campaign was launched. In the third phase, a standardised information and advisory procedure on safe internal women migration was developed. This is expected to enable the targeted group to have adequate knowledge about job requirements, working conditions, rights at work as well as basic life skills. The information package was developed for internal women migrants working in four sectors - garments industries, construction sites, rice mills and domestic help.
