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Openness and honesty win praise from MEPs as Bangladesh tackles child labour and workplace safety

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Bangladesh’s determination to meet its commitment to International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards has been warmly praised by MEPs on the European Parliament’s trade committee. They were impressed both by the progress to date and an openness about the challenges ahead, exemplified by a candid exchange of views with the country’s Ambassador to the European Union, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.

Like parliamentarians the world over, MEPs sometimes have to battle with evasive and unhelpful individuals to find out what they need to know. So members of the trade committee were quick to acknowledge that their discussion with the Bangladesh Ambassador, Mahbub Hassan Saleh was like a breath of fresh air.

Bangladesh Ambassador, Mahbub Hassan Saleh

From across the political spectrum, they spoke of a strong and transparent relationship. “Other countries are much harder”, observed Svenja Hahn from Renew. “I welcome the fact that Bangladesh is open enough to share its problems with us”, added Maximilian Krah from the Identity and Democracy group.

He also described Bangladesh as a success story. In March it completed full ratification of the ILO convention on labour standards, setting a minimum working age of 14 years old. The committee’s socialist chair, Bernd Lange, said there is a lot still to do “but we are on track”.

Bangladesh has set itself an ambitious National Action Plan, which reflects a road map agreed with the EU. The EuropeanCommission reported faster progress on tackling child labour, with the number of labour inspectors due to rise from 300 to 1,500 by the end of next year, a fivefold increase.

The Ambassador set out the size of the task and the progress so far. More sectors have been declared free of child labour, which is due to be eliminated in all its forms by 2025. A project to eradicate hazardous child labour is expected to be completed next year. The definition of hazardous labour has been widened and the project should remove 100,000 children from dangerous workplaces.

Mahbub Hassan Saleh added that there remained areas for further improvement in a country of 144 thousand square kilometres and 170 million people, the most densely populated in the world. He said one of the biggest challenges was reaching out effectively to such a huge population, with widespread informal employment.

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Action at local level was complementing central government initiatives, such as establishing a helpline and setting up new labour courts. Bangladesh’s partnership with the EU began 49 years ago and the Ambassador assured MEPs that the country has “utilised the trade privileges and development assistance to the maximum possible extent”.

The committee hopes to visit Bangladesh in July for the MEPs to see for themselves a country which they regard as one where its relationship with the EU has made a real difference. As Emmanouil Fragkos from the ECR group put it, “a pioneer and an example for other countries”.

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