Migrant rights defender John Bingham remembered in Bangladesh
Bangladeshi migrants, civil society leaders and senior diplomats on Tuesday commemorated global migrant rights defender John Kennedy Bingham who passed away on 26 July 2022.
Describing John K. Bingham as real friend of migrants, refugees across the world, they said that John made his significant contributions to protections of migrants and their families through formulating global compact on migration.
They made the remarks while speaking at an online Condolence Meeting in Memory of John Kennedy Bingham, organised by Bangladesh Civil Society for Migrants (BCSM).
BCSM chair CR Abrar presided over the condolence meeting and he noted that John K Bingham was a lawyer, human rights defender and social worker and he had kept his commitment through dedications and hard-work showed in national and international levels.
Former foreign secretary Shahidul Haque said that Bangladeshi migrant rights defender lost their friend at the untimely passing of John K. Bingham who was a spiritual man fully dedicated to making welfare for migrants and other unprivileged groups.
“He let other groups, civil society organizations speak more to the international forums to raise their voices,” Shahidul commemorated John.
Bangladesh ambassador to Jordan Nahida Sobhan said that John made his great contributions to getting approval of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) as an UN organization and also in creating Global Compact on Migration (GCM).
“His vacuum will not be filled soon in the field of migration,” she said.
BCSM co-chair Syed Saiful Haque remembered John K. Bingham as an ‘inspiring man’ who always loved to work with all. “I would know him since 2007 when Global Forum on Migration and Development was held,” he said.
Migrant worker turned rights activist Anisur Rahman Khan said that John was very supportive minded man who had help getting his voice full shape in the international meetings.
OKUP chairman Shakirul Islam said that he firstly met John at a High-Level Dialogue in 2013 and he could understand John as good friend of migrants.
BNSK executive director Sumaiya Islam recalled John as cooperative comrade for the migrant rights defenders.
RMMRU director Marina Sultana, WARBE DF director Jasiya Khatoon and OKUP project manager AA Mamun Nasim, among others, remembered John K. Bingham at the meeting.
At least 38 migrant rights campaigners from different parts of Bangladesh joined the online meeting. John K. Bingham, lawyer and migrant, served as Head of Policy of ICMC in Geneva from 2005 to 2018.
Before joining ICMC in 2005, John worked for eight years for Catholic Charities in New York, where he was director of the departments of Immigrant and Refugee Services and later Capital Projects and Law. He served as chair of the Board of the New York Immigration Coalition, and on the migration advisory group of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.