The Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday filed a case against nine people, including senior officials of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training and several manpower agency executives, on charges of document forgery and facilitating the illegal trafficking of women abroad.
ACC assistant director Swapan Kumar Roy lodged the case with the ACC’s integrated district office, Dhaka-1, said ACC deputy director (public relations) Aktarul Islam.The accused include BMET deputy director (emigration) Md Sajjad Hossain Sarkar, assistant director (emigration) Md Hossain Ullah Akand, manpower survey officer Md Nizamuddin Patwari, and office assistant cum computer operator Md Azad Hossain.
Five officials from manpower export agencies are Md Anwar Hossain, managing partner of HA International, Md Salauddin, managing partner of KH Overseas, Md Jamal Hossain, proprietor of Makkah Overseas, Md Anwar Hossain Bhuiyan, managing partner of Tasnim Overseas, and Ekramul Haque, partner of SM Manpower.
According to the case statement, the accused colluded with each other to submit applications for women seeking employment as domestic workers abroad by using fake passports, falsely identifying the applicants as ‘returning workers’.
Instead of the actual passport numbers of the applicants, they referenced passports belonging to other people to fraudulently secure exit clearances for nine women, said the case.
It also stated that the BMET officials, in collusion with manpower agents, prepared and submitted approval notes for these forged applications without verifying the applicants’ information in the BMET database, allegedly in exchange for financial gains.
Additionally, the officials approved clearances for four underage women — below the minimum legal age of 25 for overseas domestic work — directly violating government regulations restricting the deployment of domestic workers under 25 to Saudi Arabia and the other Middle East countries
.These irregularities came to light during an ACC enforcement drive at the BMET office in the capital Dhaka on May 29.
SOURCE : UNB