Foster youth talent with policy
Migrant rights activists yesterday stressed including specific goals in Bangladesh's migration policy, including one to foster youths' talents so that they can show their potentiality in various professions at home and abroad.
Though the country is receiving around US $15 billion as remittance from migrant workers, over 30 percent of whom are youths, youth-specific support services are inadequate, they observed at a national consultation.
Terre Des Hommes International Federation and the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) in partnership with Bangladesh Civil Society Coordination Committee (BCCCC) jointly organised the programme at the RMMRU office in the capital.
It focused on international migration and youth perspectives in Bangladesh ahead of the 9th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), scheduled to be held in Dhaka in December.
Presenting a keynote, Ansar Anas, policy assistant, Terre Des Hommes International Federation, cited a UNFPA 2015 report saying over 30 percent of Bangladesh's population was under 30 years of age while around 12 percent of migrants worldwide are youths.
Migration and youth are often ignored in policymaking while it is urgent to integrate youths' voices into the mainstream policy, said Prof Tasneem Siddiqui, RMMRU founding chair.
“It is a must to put our attention on the youths' potential for the benefit of the nation by training them in potential sectors. At the same time, the challenges the youths usually face must be resolved,” she added while addressing as the chair in the programme.
Other participants recommended providing career counselling, an introduction to host country's culture and language and vocational training; having a youth-specific database and policy interventions and a special provision in the migration law and introducing youth branches under the expatriates' and foreign affairs ministries.
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