Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Md Asaduzzaman on Tuesday said the government plans to establish specialised tribunals at divisional headquarters to ensure speedy disposal of cases involving expatriates.
"Expatriates often face years of harassment over legal disputes involving property purchased with money sent from abroad or the recovery of money sent to family members in Bangladesh.
The proposed tribunals would deal exclusively with cases involving expatriates to reduce their suffering and ensure faster justice," the law minister said.
He made the remarks while addressing the inaugural session of the 'Shonar Manush Sammilon-2026', organised by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) at a hotel in the capital to mark the organisation's 30th anniversary.
Md Asaduzzaman said the proposal is currently at the drafting stage. Recalling his recent visit to Dubai, the law minister said Bangladeshi migrant workers there lead extremely difficult lives.
Despite enduring such gruelling conditions, Bangladeshi workers receive much lower wages than workers from other countries, he said, urging the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment to look into the matter seriously.
Blaming unscrupulous recruiting agencies for one of the major challenges facing expatriates, Asaduzzaman said 5,000 visas had already been cancelled in the Middle East, particularly in the United Arab Emirates, while many more were awaiting cancellation.
Explaining the reasons, he said many recruiting agencies were submitting fake certificates and documents that did not even exist.
As the authenticity of such documents can now be easily verified using artificial intelligence (AI), the countries concerned are taking legal action against those involved, the law minister added.
Praising RMMRU for its 30-year journey, Md Asaduzzaman said, "We believe that RMMRU and its team have never been involved in any activity contrary to the interests of workers. No one has alleged that RMMRU misappropriated funds collected in workers' names. We have seen no corruption in RMMRU's integrity. We have never seen RMMRU engaging in sycophancy."
At the event, he expressed hope that RMMRU's 30-year journey would extend into the next 100 years, helping build a Bangladesh where migrant workers would return home to work, and the country would recruit workers from abroad.