News Desk :
After months of exploitation by their agents in Vietnam, 17 more Bangladeshis on Monday travelled to Hanoi from Guntao and held a sit-in near the Bangladesh embassy there, calling upon the mission to come to their aid.
The migrant workers urged the Bangladesh mission to help them with accommodation, food, and repatriation home.
“Our agents cut off the water supply to our accommodation in Guntao. Since we cannot continue to stay there, we started for Hanoi on Saturday and reached here this morning,” Faridul Islam, one of the 17 Bangladeshis, told a local media over phone.
Faridul also said they were sent to Vietnam earlier in January this year, but were not employed in any good organisation; they were sent to other companies to work only for a few days. For the last several months, they were living in a house and were surviving on the charity of locals in Guntao, some 2,000km from Hanoi, he said.
The migrants also said they went to Vietnam with emigration clearance of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).
Later today, two Bangladesh mission officials spoke to them but could not say anything for sure of what would be their fate.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Vietnam, Samina Naz could not be contacted immediately.
Earlier, in last week, she told The Daily Star that they were suddenly seeing dozens of Bangladeshis complaining and coming to the embassy.
At least 44 other Bangladeshis, who faced almost similar situation and sought help from the Bangladesh embassy, were sheltered in hotels in cooperation with the Vietnam police since July 3.
The ambassador also said it was difficult for them at the moment to accommodate so many Bangladeshis.
Shariful Hasan, head of BRAC Migration Programme, said as per the overseas employment law, it is the responsibility of the government to make sure that the recruiting agents who sent the Bangladeshis to Vietnam pay for accommodation, food and repatriation.
