Lawyers Beyond Borders Bangladesh is a registered trust, a non-political and non- profit organization, and an established local chapter of an international network Lawyers Beyond Borders.
The Lawyers Beyond Borders Network (LBB) was formed out of four years of thinking and strategizing by Migration Forum Asia (MFA) and its various partners who wanted to bring together lawyers who work on the cases of migrant workers, primarily in the Middle East and GCC country contexts, to move towards impact litigation and policy advocacy in their work. The strengths of the network members are diverse, which include traditional litigation, case management, the provision of legal advice, paralegal services, impact litigation, and rights advocacy. The members acknowledge this array of strengths and see value in being part of a network that can exchange information, tap each other's approaches, learn from them, and apply them in their respective work if and when applicable. The network is not defined by one expertise alone; it is organic, and the members can raise issues that they want to take up and focus on. As the Secretariat of the LBB network, MFA facilitates the coming together of lawyers, legal aid practitioners, civil society, state actors, and other stakeholders to advance justice for migrant workers and members of their families. Three regional conferences were organized for the network members to come together: the first was in November 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand, while the second was held in Beirut, Lebanon, in September 2014, and the third was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in November 2015.
Among the key recommendations passed in the 2nd Regional Conference of the Lawyers Beyond Borders is the strengthening of the regional network through the establishment of a national lawyers network on migration and human rights. The "LBB local/national chapters" would aim to bring together lawyers and legal aid practitioners who are willing to provide legal assistance to migrant workers and members of their families and develop a case-referral mechanism that would involve stakeholders (civil society, unions, governments, etc.) and processes within countries of origin, such as Bangladesh, and in the countries of destination (or other countries of origin, if applicable).
Members of the LBB network in Bangladesh took immediate action on this recommendation, thus established a local chapter in July 2015 at Dhaka, Bangladesh.
LBB in Bangladesh is presently providing (a) legal assistance to victimized migrants and potential migrants (both in Bangladesh and destination countries); (b) services to repatriate victimized migrants from different countries to Bangladesh; (c) training to turn general lawyers into skilled migrant lawyers; and (d) conducting researches and strategic litigations for possible reforms of Bangladesh’s relevant laws and practices.