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Saudi Arabia deports 113 BD workers last week


Published : 08 Nov 2019 09:23 PM | Updated : 01 Sep 2020 06:14 AM

In face of an ongoing crackdown by the Saudi Arabia government, 113 workers returned Bangladesh Thursday night after they had been deported by the Saudi authorities. With those 113 workers, a total of 930 Bangladeshi workers returned Bangladesh in last 9 days, while over 9,613 workers had to return from Saudi Arabia in last three months, said officials of the Expatriate Welfare Desk at the Dhaka airport set under the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment and Brac migrant sector.  

Those 113 workers arrived at Hazarat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at around 12:30am Thursday night by SB 804 Biman. The day before, on Thursday 104 workers had returned and 153 workers returned on October 30. According to BRAC Migration Programme, the number of returnees has been increasing in the recent times. In August this year, some 1,528 workers returned from the middle east country while 3,339 in September and 4,662 in October.

BRAC Migration Programme chief Shariful Hasan said, nearly 21,000 Bangladeshi have so far been sent back home from Saudi Arabia during the current year. Officials of the migration programme, with help of Prabashi Kalyan Desk set under the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, provided the deported workers with immediate assistance like food and drinking water. They also assisted the workers to return home safely, Shariful said.

Quoting a number of the workers, he said they had gone to Saudi Arabia barely a few months ago and were sent back “empty-handed”. One of the returnee workers said he had been detained on September 23 while going to a shop. He later learnt that he was declared “absconding” by his employer about three months before he was arrested.

He said he had given Tk 4 lakhs to a Bangladeshi broker who assured him of a job at a welding workshop in the Gulf country, he said. However, when he reached the country, his employer forced him to work at a fertiliser factory. As per Saudi law, it is illegal to work at a place other than the one designated in the visa.

“The company [employer] threatened me and other workers with deportation if we disagreed with them,” he told this correspondent over phone. He alleged that Bangladesh mission officials hardly ever listened to what detained migrant workers had to say. Shariful Hasan, head of Brac Migration Programme, said workers often go to the Middle Eastern countries with the so-called “free visas”.

Actually, there is no such thing as a free visa. The workers are told that they can work freely without being tied to a particular employer. But that is illegal, he said. In many cases, employers are also involved in corruption, he said, adding that much of the problems being faced by the migrants is so-called “free visas”.

The Bangladesh government should take steps to save the workers from being deceived like this, he said. Saudi Arabia has been a leading destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers since it resumed taking them in 2015. Between 2015 and September 2019, Saudi Arabia received about 13.68 lakh Bangladeshi workers, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.

Related News: Stream of BD returnees from Saudia continues