MI5 torture allegation today. http://bit.ly/ZmDtb Compare that with the story written by an unheard of journo earlier in the week in the Indie. http://bit.ly/y769n. Rachel Shields, unless I am mistaken,  is not noted for writing about Bangladesh. In fact, apart from a few articles dealing with serious issues,  most of her articles are about lifestyle and fashion. And yet she is suddenly able to write about murky goings on in Bangladesh? What is murky are the MI5 torture allegations today. Is Rachel’s article a kind of spoiler or does it, like the tanks outside Heathrow in the past, help to establish a climate in which this government can seek to find a pretext for its activities?

As we prepare to go to Venice to start interviewing Bangladeshi migrants - I get news that the most notorious trafficker Ahmed Sheikh Turab - the man who by his actions drowned 283 people in the Med and who used to boast that half the Bangladeshis in Rome were there because of him - has finally been sentenced for his role in that tragedy of christmas eve 1996.

From left to right

Ilish mach (Hilsa fish)

kumra (butternut)

potol vorta (pointed gourd)

shutki (bombay duck)

Want bite-sized Bangladeshi news? Then two services are online at the mo:

http://twitter.com/bdnews24

and

http://twitter.com/bdnews

If anyone knows anymore please let me know ( Rezwan?)

The BNP has yet again walked out of parliamentary proceedings in Dhaka. This time it is complaining about seating arrangements. A BNP party spokesman said “We have only been allocated 4 seats at the front, and that is insufficient to even hold Madam Zia’s spectacle case let alone our lawmakers.”

READ THE BBC REPORT HERE

A study last year by World Vision found Bangladesh had the highest rate of child marriage in the world. Fifty-three per cent of girls were married before the age of 15, it said.

“The Rajendrapur Conversation will be an annual conversation between architects, engineers and poverty researchers in the North with poor people, ngos and practitioners in the South. It is a partnership between the Brooks World Poverty Institute at The University of Manchester and the BRAC Development Institute, Rajendrapur, Bangadesh.”

Good old Joseph Stiglitz is involved and my ex-head of department, Prof David Hulme, when i was at the IDPM in Manchester!

A couple of days ago I blogged about the news of the Thai military maltreating Bangladeshi and Burmese migrants and effectively consigning them to their death on the seas. Now we hear that the labour recruiters are shamelessly exploiting all the uncertainty to extract even more money from the anxious relatives of these migrants.

published in the Pakistan Observer. Chauvinist and ill-informed bilge by some clown called Ibn-e-Rehmat.

Thai soldiers tied up our hands and then put us in boats without engines. These were towed into the high sea by motorised boats and left to drift.

“We were without food and water. The Thai soldiers clearly wanted us to die on the boats.

Read it HERE

In the New Nation of 18th December 2008, Monsur Reza Chowdhury (Joint secretary, Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment)  is reported to have said that Bangladeshi labour markets abroad are not likely to be adversely affected by world economic recession. Read  here. Doesn’t that sound bizarre? I mean why would Bangladeshi migrant workers be unaffected?

So it wasn’t surprising to find in the Daily Star yesterday Abdul Matin Chowdhury, the minister for Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment,  saying that joblessness amongst Bangladeshi workers in Singapore is a direct consequence of global economic recession -  contradicting the earlier statement by the official from his ministry.

Surely it is not rocket science to realise that there might be a knock-on effect of the global recession? Well apparently there is room for doubt.  The Centre for Policy Development doesn’t seem to thinks so. They reckon that Arab countries are NOT likely to experience the crunch as badly. They are predicting a healthy and steady rise in remittances from Bangladeshi migrant workers. They point to these figures  - $8.22billion last year; $6.55billion the year before and are predicitng $10billion by the end of the current financial year. The CPD are looking for

” greater dynamism and facilitation from the foreign ministry, expatriate welfare ministry and our overseas missions” so that “manpower export could be diversified, especially at a time when the traditional labour markets are likely to face a crunch if the global recession lingers.”

Ifty Islam of Asian Tiger Capital partners takes another view and  writes :

“It is becoming increasingly evident that remittance inflow from Middle Eastern countries is likely to be adversely affected.” He goes on to describe Dubai’s property and financial woes.

And if this is indeed the case, then the situation of almost 3 million Bangladesh and Pakistanis in the UAE becomes very precarious. They make up the greatest proprotion of construciton companies’ costs ( even though they are paid about 3-5 dirhams or about one dollar an hour) and they lack employtment protection.

You would think that given the worsening situation, the government and the think-tanks would be a bit more circumspect about sending abroad as many workers as they can cram into planes. Remember that in the favoured destination areas - the middle east -  migrant workers have no one to turn to and next to no rights.

The curious story of Bangladeshi migrant workers in the Maldives.

10,000 tourists go to the Maldives per week

330 tonnes of rubbish dumped on Tilafushi island every day

Rubbish now covers 50 hectares or 120 acres.

hand sorted by 150 Bangladeshi workers

Striking hotographs by Elin Hoyland. Guardian article here.

If you have read “Murder in Samarkand” then this is also a must

The Catholic Orangemen of Togo.