Bangladeshi female migrant workers are the worst victims of serious crimes in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and other Middle East sates. They are being sexually abused and physically and mentally tortured in many ways there, Centre for Women and Children Studies (CWCS), a non-profit and non-political organisation, at a press conference told journalists on Sunday. CWCS demanded the government to take effective steps to ensure workplace safety for female migrant workers.
A total of 24 Bangladeshi women, who remained captive illegally by a Saudi recruiting agency, have been rescued in the KSA on Saturday. At the initiative of the Bangladeshi embassy and with the help of Saudi law enforcers, the women were rescued from Arar city, 1,100 kilometres away from the Saudi capital city Riyadh. A Saudi recruiting agency named ‘Maqtab Taowasul Alsari’ took the women there illegally through a Bangladesh recruiting agency named ‘Messrs S. Anwar overseas’ and held them captive instead of sending them to the workplaces of Saudi employers. Later, all the connections between the women from their native homes were disconnected. Even, if any woman fell sick due to insufficient food and safe water, they were not provided treatment.
Necessary steps should
be taken to stop torture
and sexual harassment
of female expatriate workers
Such torture and sexual harassment of female expatriate workers continued taking places across the Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia. Around nine lakh women migrant workers are working in different countries of Middle East. Of them about four lakh and thirty thousands are working in Saudi Arabia.
According to both government and non-government data, thousands of Bangladeshi women migrant workers had to return home empty-handed, especially from the Middle East, after being subjected to torture. However, there is no specific information available on the real number of women migrants who returned home in the face of torture and abuse.
Many women migrant workers who have come back to Bangladesh shared their horrific experiences, saying they suffered backbreaking working hours and sexual abuse every day while staying in those countries. Following the repetition of such violence against women, various initiatives were taken for protecting the female workers in Saudi Arabia. The ministry concerned had also assured that all the female workers who are now abroad would remain safe and the situation would be better. But the latest incident of torture shows that the situation has not changed much for the female workers.
Government must take stern punitive actions against owners of recruitment agencies responsible for such heinous activities. Necessary steps should be taken to stop torture and sexual harassment of female expatriate workers. Authorities concerned must give protection and honour to women migrant workers in their workplace abroad.
