EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

        

 

Returnee migrant workers

Their rehabilitation is prime need

The resumption of the repatriation of Bangladeshis fleeing from Libya and gathered on the Egypt-Tunisia frontier is surely good news. Indeed, it builds on the earlier steps taken by the Bangladesh government and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to bring home as many as 35,466 Bangladeshi citizens from conflict-torn Libya. The latest repatriation move by the IOM will bring back to the country 900 of our citizens. This is in addition to the 186 who arrived in Dhaka last Sunday and another batch of 186 who were reported to be on their way home from Egypt on Monday. It is now a fair assessment that quite a good number of Bangladeshis still remain on the Egypt-Tunisia border. Hopefully, they will all be home in the coming few weeks.

One must note with appreciation the superhuman efforts put in by the IOM and the Bangladesh authorities towards bringing the Bangladeshi migrant workers home from Libya. The chartered flights operated by the IOM and the Bangladesh government on a cost-sharing basis as well as flights by Bangladesh Biman were a satisfying affair given the constraints the IOM and the home authorities worked under. In many ways, the efforts expended in helping our workers out of a bad situation should be a precedent to follow should a similar crisis occur anywhere in future.

That said, it is of critical importance that the tens of thousands of workers now back home or on the way should be shown a way out of the bind they are caught in. Almost all of these workers have spent a fortune seeking employment abroad and the crisis in Libya has compelled them to return with nothing to show for. It remains for the manpower export ministry to devise plans -- and swiftly -- by which they can be rehabilitated or even sent to other countries on employment. The private sector can come in too with job offers as well as financial assistance on an emergency basis. Unemployment leads to family and social turmoil. Let that spectre be warded off here.

Managing climate fund

Strong oversight bodies needed

Transparency International (TI) last Saturday called upon all countries to ensure transparency in utilizing climate funds for fighting the impacts of global climate change.

In a seminar held in Dhaka the TI boss Huguette Labelle launched globally a TI report on research findings of risks in the management of climate funds. She made it clear that climate change governance will face old corruption risks like policy capture, conflicts of interest, mismanagement of public resources and creative accounting. She in particular emphasized on the necessity of strengthening the governance system to tackle corruption risks.

Broadly speaking, there are two aspects of the climate fund issue. The international community who promised funds to the affected countries should make it available without unnecessary delay. Funds which were pledged almost two years ago have not been received as yet. The promised fund should be immediately disbursed as new and additional amounts and not under any regular development assistance programs. These are funds to compensate damages faced by the countries that are least responsible for climate change. There should be no strings attached, plain and simple.

The obligation to properly use this fund by the recipient is no less important. Management of fund is a huge task. This demands full attention of the departments responsible for fund utilization. The TI has appropriately suggested monitoring of climate funding by oversight bodies comprising of independent professionals and access to information by public.

Our government should take necessary measures to have a sound management system in place to ensure proper handling of the fund. This can be done by involving the members of the civil society, climate experts and financial professionals in oversight bodies to play their due role in local government decision making and spending to ensure transparency in the management of funds. Not only that, the oversight bodies will have to ensure reporting on climate projects systematically at every step from planning to implementation.

Since there is a genuine concern over risks of corruption involving the climate financing, strong and transparent management all the way is the only answer.