Bangladesh, India discuss ways to protect migrant workers amid Covid-19 fallout

Bangladesh and India today discussed ways of working together to protect migrant workers of both countries who are employed in the overseas labour market, especially in the Middle East.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Riva Das Ganguly shared views on the current situation in the countries, especially in the Middle East, where there are millions of South Asian migrants, said a foreign ministry statement.

Due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, many migrant workers have become jobless and are facing food crisis, while many of those migrant labour-receiving countries are also asking the labour-sending countries, including India and Bangladesh, to repatriate their migrants.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, has requested the labour-receiving countries to make sure that the migrants get food and that their jobs are not terminated. If terminated, they should get at least six months' salaries.

Bangladesh also raised the issue during an OIC meeting recently and requested the OIC to create a Covid-19 recovery and response fund to help protect the migrants.

Riva Ganguly Das welcomed Bangladesh's proposal seeking to ensure at least six months' salary in the cases migrant workers are terminated.

Momen thanked India for helping in the repatriation of the Bangladeshi nationals who were stranded in India, and welcomed the initiative of using the railway to transport essential commodities to Bangladesh.