Ministries at loggerhead

The Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are in a conflict over opening of labour wings in Bangladesh missions abroad.
The Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment has taken a move to open labour wings in Bangladesh missions in different countries like Greece, South Africa, Switzerland, Russia and some Middle Eastern countries to look after the welfare of the expatriate workers and encourage them to send remittances through formal channels.
It also wanted to create 101 new posts in labour wings to engage additional manpower to render services to the expatriate workers.
The issue came up at an inter-ministerial meeting last week where the Foreign Ministry objected to the proposal, an official of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment who attended the meeting told The New Nation on Sunday.
Frustrated by the Foreign Ministry’s move, he said, when the Ministry of Public Administration has already given its nod to the proposal to open labour wings by creating new posts from our Ministry, the objection of the Foreign Ministry has come as a great shock.
The Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment is apparently going to open the labour wings bypassing the Foreign Ministry, which is as per the Rules of Business is likely to be involved in such process, said an official of the Foreign Ministry.
“They even did not bother to discuss the matter with us although they should do it considering the interest of the country,” he said, adding, they have directly gone through the Ministry of Public Administration bypassing us.
The foreign ministry has made an observation regarding the issue at the meeting. Our position is that opening of labour wings in those countries would not be useful for Bangladesh as those countries are not interested now to recruit manpower from Bangladesh , he said.
Moreover, they are creating pressure on us for brining back Bangladeshis living in those countries illegally. Opening of labour wings in those countries at the moment would not deliver the goods rather that might create negative impact on our diplomatic relations with those countries, he said.
Defending the objection of the foreign ministry he said, “We don’t find scope of exporting manpower to European countries as they are facing increasing unemployment problem.”
The opening of a new wing in any mission abroad needs consent from the respective countries. “Earlier, we have asked our envoys to look into the matter. But they informed us that governments of those countries were not ready to give consent to open new wings in Bangladesh missions,” he said.