It is good to know that the government is considering bringing informal grassroots service providers, known as middlemen or sub-agents, into the labour migration sector under a framework to tackle fraudulence. These informal service providers are not recognised by our laws, despite the fact that they are an integral part of the labour migration cycle. According to a joint report of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), our migrant workers take the services of the middlemen because of a major gap that exists in the government's pre-departure services to the migrants. They provide at least a dozen types of services to migrant workers—they assist the migrants in preparing necessary documents, collecting smart cards, processing passports, etc, and also accompany the workers to the airport. However, a large number of migrant workers are being cheated by them in the process.

Although the middlemen provide a great service to our migrants, there are widespread allegations that remaining under the shadow of unscrupulous recruiting agencies, they often take large amounts of money from unaware migrant workers, giving them false promises of jobs. Reportedly, many of them are even involved with national and transnational trafficking gangs. According to a survey done by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of 5,407 households in the high migration-prone district Tangail in 2017, 19 percent of people could not avail overseas jobs despite paying Tk 1.95 lakh each on an average. And most of them paid the money to the middlemen.

Since our migrant workers depend on the informal agents more than authorised recruiters and state institutions, the government should find a viable option to hold these middlemen accountable. They should be brought under the coverage of the Overseas Employment and Migrant Act 2013 and other government regulations to ensure safe migration. Moreover, by bringing them under a legal framework, the trafficking of our workers can be checked and the overall migration costs can also be reduced. We hope the government will waste no time in doing the needful in bringing the middlemen under a legal framework.