Prottasha hotline to be merged with Probashbondhu Call Centre

The hotline service - established to provide comprehensive information to migrants and their communities - was handed over to the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board to be merged with the Probashbondhu Call Centre.

On Sunday, a handover ceremony was held at the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE) which saw the Prottasha hotline service transferred to the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board (WEWB) and merged with the Probashbondhu Call Centre.

The project is supported by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and its implementing partner BRAC, under ‘Bangladesh: Sustainable Reintegration and Improved Migration Governance (Prottasha)’ is funded by the European Union,

Bangladesh sends the sixth highest number of migrants abroad globally and is the eighth highest receiver of remittances. Approximately one million Bangladeshis go abroad every year, and there are currently approximately 13 million Bangladeshi nationals working overseas.

These Bangladeshi migrants contribute to the national economy through remittances.

To provide information to aspirant and returned migrants and their families on safe migration and reintegration, the Prottasha project established a hotline service in 2019.

Similarly, considering the contribution of expatriate workers and the importance of providing information to them, WEWB established the Probashbondhu Call Center in 2017 to help expatriate workers and their families with information.

The Prottasha Hotline service is run by the service provider Pendulum Motion and will be handed over to WEWB and merged with the Probashbondhu Call Center to provide more comprehensive information support on a 24-hour basis.

Imran Ahmad, minister of expatriates’, said, "International migration and remittances have played an important role to the economy of Bangladesh. Migration continues to be an important area for Bangladesh as we have a large young population and two million new entrants into the labour market each year.”

Dr Ahmed Munirus Saleheen, secretary of MoEWOE, Md Hamidur Rahman, director general of WEWB, Fathima Nusrath Ghazzali, officer-in-charge, IOM Bangladesh, among others, spoke at the occasion.

Anyone in Bangladesh can seek information by contacting the local number (08000102030) at no cost. Callers from home and abroad can also connect with the center through the numbers (09610102030, 01794333333, 01784333333) at any time.