7,000 Bangladeshi workers deported from KSA in 2 months

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Over 7,000 Bangladeshi workers, who became irregular after failing to update their work permits, were deported from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in last two months, according to officials in Dhaka.

They said that many of them were detained and sent back home as ‘premature’ within three to 10 months of their migration even though they had  travel documents.

Wage Earners Welfare Board assistant director Tanvir Hossain who is also in charge of welfare desk at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport told New Age that 3461 workers came back home in February and over 3600 workers returned home in January.

As on February 24, BRAC migration programme said that they provided emergency assistance to at least 6426 workers who were deported from Saudi Arabia since the beginning of this year.

On February 24, they received at least 314 returnee workers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport as they came back home empty handed.

One of the returnees was Rashid Khan, 24, of Araihazar upazila in Narayanganj and he was deported from Saudi Arabia within one month of his migration.

Rashid said that he was sent to Saudi Arabia on driving visa by paying Tk 4.5 lakh. When he was saying prayer, he was caught by Saudi police and he was sent back home, he said.

Sharif Sarker of Barisal said that he went to Saudi Arabia five months ago after he was promised a job of a tea boy.

On arrival he found a job in iron factory, he said, adding that he was forced to work and his employer did not pay him wage. Later, he was detained by a crackdown and sent back home.

BRAC migration programme head Shariful Hasan said that many returned at empty-handed within short period of migration as their employers did not issue their work permits.

Cheating with the migrant workers should be stopped, he said.

Wage Earners Welfare Board officials said that at least 350 women workers also came back home from Saudi Arabia since January.

According to a report of the prime minister’s office, 50 per cent of over 15 lakh workers of Bangladesh in Saudi Arabia lost their jobs on expiry of their job permits and they became undocumented.

Since January 2018, Saudi Arabia deported at least 69,494 Bangladeshi workers after detaining them at camps, said the PMO report. Source: New Age