Celebrating first-ever National Expatriates’ Day: Recognising contributions, strengthening partnership

Migrant workers lined up. Photo: UNB

The contribution of expatriate Bangladeshis to the development of Bangladesh is crucial. The number of Bangladeshi expatriates working in different countries worldwide is about 13 million. 

The hard-earned income of expatriates is one of the pillars of our development journey. Proving all national and international fears wrong, expatriate Bangladeshis sent a record amount of remittances to the country amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

We have long been demanding that the government of Bangladesh celebrate a special day for expatriates to raise their dignity and further encourage their involvement in the country's development. 

The cabinet meeting held on 27 December chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approved 30 December as National Expatriates' Day. We are delighted by the acceptance of our proposal to make 30 December National Expatriates' Day.

With this announcement, a new milestone has been set. Expatriate Bangladeshis can proudly say that they have a day, a platform to resolve the crisis of their dignity and increase their pride. 

On this day, the government of Bangladesh will make special arrangements for the expatriates and hopefully be more proactive in solving their problems. Expatriates will receive more services. As the official celebration begins, the day will play a significant role in alleviating the grievances of expatriates in the coming years.

Renowned artist Hashem Khan created the logo for the day. For the last six years, the foreign and expatriate welfare ministers of the government have supported us by being guests at our various events to celebrate the day. Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen presented our demands to the Honourable Prime Minister regarding the declaration of Expatriates' Day. 

The Bangladesh government is going to celebrate ''Expatriates' Day' nationally for the first time. However, this recognition did not come in one day. We have been demanding a day for Non-Resident Bangladeshis (NRB) since 2005. Then, on 19 October 2017, we announced 'NRB Day' through a press conference and urged Bangladeshis living at home and abroad to observe the day on 30 December. 

Since then, we have been celebrating this day on behalf of the Scholars Bangladesh Society and the Centre for NRB Foundation. We have been celebrating 'NRB Day' on our own initiative.

When we decided to celebrate a day for expatriates, we started looking into whether other countries have Expatriates' Day or not.

We found out that in the neighbouring country of India, Overseas Indian Day is celebrated on 9 January, the day of the homecoming of the leader of their independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi. Then, we accepted the proposal to celebrate the homecoming of our Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, on 10 January as National Expatriates' Day.

This proposal was sent to the Honourable Prime Minister through the Foreign Minister. When it was presented, the Honourable Prime Minister said that for the independence of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu was imprisoned in Pakistan, and he returned from there to his homeland. Therefore, it is not appropriate to say that he stayed abroad. She asked to fix some other date instead of 10 January.

After learning this from the Foreign Minister, we decided to declare December 30th as Expat Day. In December, expatriates are relatively less busy as many countries worldwide have holidays during this time. Utilising this opportunity, expats visit their homeland.

We started celebrating Expatriate Day with a few objectives and goals in mind. The main objective of this day is to increase the country's partnership with more than one crore diaspora spread across the world, involving expatriates in the development of the country and taking important suggestions from them, to involve them in taking various initiatives to increase remittances, open new services for expatriates and inform them about the services in operation.

When we launched Scholars Bangladesh in 2005, we raised several demands. Among these demands was organising a conference with expatriates at the end of the year. As usual, we held conferences in 2005, 2007, and 2009. 

Through all these conferences, we have demanded from the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment a bank for NRBs, Probashi Kallyan Bank, a day for expatriates, a one-stop service for NRB investors, stopping harassment of expatriate workers at the airport, and opening information and service centres to help them. Also, to involve expatriates, who have been enriched with knowledge and science from abroad, in the development of the country.

Among all these demands, the government approved the establishment of three NRB banks in 2012; our demand was the establishment of Probashi Kallyan Bank. That bank was also approved during the tenure of the current government. 

But none of them has played much of a role for the welfare of expatriates. The Janata Bank NRB branch was established in 2008 with our full policy support. The performance of this branch alone is relatively satisfactory.

National Expatriates' Day will be celebrated in all embassies around the world. District administrators of 64 districts in the country have been instructed to celebrate it in every district and upazila.

The Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka will be the main venue for the events of the Expatriates' Day. Commercially Important Person (CIP) cards will be given to expatriates who have made significant contributions in various sectors. 

Our expatriates who will come to the country on that day will be greeted with flowers at the airport, along with adorning Dhaka city with lights in their honour. Much of what we planned is being materialised. 

Since we have been celebrating the day with the Scholars Bangladesh Society and the Centre for NRB Foundation for a long time, we will do our best to help the government celebrate the day in any way they need. Even if the government wants to use the logo drawn by the eminent painter Hashem Khan and the theme song used by us, we are happy to provide it.

This year, we are organising the Expatriates' Day events on 29 and 30 December at Hotel Intercontinental in the capital. The programme of the first day includes unveiling of the Expatriates' Day logo, a one-time financial education support programme for the children of the families of six expatriates who were killed while working abroad and giving special honours to Bangali-friendly Japanese citizen Professor Pema Gyalpo, who helped raise awareness about the Liberation War of Bangladesh and gave financial support for the cause.

The second day's activities include discussions on Expatriates' Day; distribution of Expatriates' Day Awards to expatriates who have contributed in seven sectors including industry, agriculture, financial services, technology, health, education, art and culture; the unveiling of a book on Bangabandhu's relationship with Japan written by expatriate Prabir Bikash Sarkar living in Japan and music performances by expatriate artists.

On this day, announcements will be made regarding the NRB PBO Literary-Culture Conference to be held on 22, 23 and 24 February, the NRB PBO Conference on 27, 28 and 29 December and the National Expatriates' Day Festival on 30 December next year.

In conclusion, we can say the day is a joyous one for expatriates because they have a government-recognised platform that is only for expatriate Bangladeshis.

M E Chowdhury Shameem is The Founding President of Scholars Bangladesh Society, Centre for NRB Foundation, NRB Conference Dhaka, NRB PBO Club Limited and Ethics Club Bangladesh Society.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.