Foreign minister asks labour councilors to keep off illegal earning from expatriate workers

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen on Friday urged the newly appointed labour councilors at different Bangladesh missions abroad to work with honesty instead of running for ‘collecting’ illegal money that may eventually push them into difficulties.

“Now-a-days we are very hard on those issues (corruption)… I want everybody to be aware about it (illegal money),” he said.

The minister was speaking at the certificate giving ceremony of ‘Orientation Course for Counsellor/ First Secretary (Labour)’ designate to Bangladesh missions abroad at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital on Thursday night.

Momen said they heard some bad news from abroad that some Bangladesh labour councilors in some countries were involved in collecting illicit money.

“In this process, they disgraced Bangladesh, disgraced foreign ministry and disgraced our mission,” he said.

He urged the new labour councilors, especially those going to lucrative destinations, to “stay away from that (corruption)… because in the long run, you might have difficulties”.

Momen directed the councilors to serve the expatriate Bangladeshi workers specially who are less fortunate with commitment, dedication and love. “You are the hope for them (expat workers) … if you can serve well, people will remember you… people will honour you,” he said.

Terming the task of labour councilors ‘most challenging job at the foreign missions’, he urged them to find out innovative and creative ways to help expatriate workers, especially the women, who often suffer.

“We have around 12.3 million workers working abroad and many of them are not that fortunate, for that we have to work very hard so that we can provide them with quality service,” he said.

The foreign minister said he is promoting two packages in Bangladesh foreign policy – economic diplomacy and public diplomacy – to materialize ‘Sonar Bangla’, a prosperous country, dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

He said economic diplomacy is for increasing foreign investment, expanding export volume, creating gainful overseas employment, ensuring quality service at Bangladesh missions and transferring knowledge-based technology while public diplomacy works for promoting Bangladesh image abroad.

Ten labour councilors posted to Bangladesh missions in Tripoli, Singapore, Jeddah, Doha, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Athens, Milan, Geneva, Moscow and the newly appointed Bangladesh deputy high commissioners to Karachi completed the weeklong course.