‘Stop harassing manpower recruiters using trafficking prevention law’

Manpower recruiting agencies have called for an end to their "harassment" by law enforcement agencies – using human trafficking prevention law.

At a human chain in front of the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry on Sunday, the recruiters demanded an amendment to the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act, 2012.

They called for the inclusion of a provision so that if a worker leaves the country after getting clearance from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET), it will remain outside the purview of the law.

The protesters also sent a memorandum to Expatriates' Welfare Minister Imran Ahmed.

The recruiters said they want exemplary punishment for real human traffickers.

However, they expressed concern that numerous recruiting agency owners are being discouraged from sending workers due to harassment under the human trafficking prevention law. As a result, the government's target of sending workers abroad is being hampered.

"It is not human trafficking to send workers abroad after accepting smart cards issued by BMET. If workers have any grievances, they can seek redress under the migration law," M Tipu Sultan, proprietor of Rajdhani Trade International, said at the event.

"Even after sending workers legally, recruiting agency owners are arrested like human traffickers and thus they get their lifetime achievements tarnished."

The memorandum read, in 2019, the expatriates' welfare minister wrote the home minister stating that any complaint brought against recruiting agencies would be outside the scope of the trafficking prevention law.

Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agency has around 1,500 members.