Staff Reporter :
At least 341 male workers returned home from Saudi Arabia in three days.
Of them, 114 workers returned on October 3, 117 on October 5 and 110 on October 7.
According to Immigration Desk of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, a total of 150 workers returned on Sunday. Of them 110 registered their names with the expatriates’ welfare desk.
The workers told the journalists that the Saudi Arabia government forced them to come back to Bangladesh.
They regretted that no one helped them in Saudi Arabia, no government officials shared their miseries.
Abu Yousuf, a resident of Bogura district, said, “We have legal papers. Yet the Saudi Arabian government sent us to jail. A total of 1000 workers are on the waiting list to come back to Bangladesh.”
A large number of expatriate workers left Saudi Arabia due to various troubles. According to Expatriates’ Welfare Desk of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, a total of 50,148 workers, returned home, majority from Saudi Arabia, last year.
The Bangladesh embassy in Saudi Arabia confirmed that they had given permission to at least 40,000 workers to leave Saudi Arabia. Most of them had to do this for not getting any permanent job.
BMET statistics show a total of 550,000 workers went to Saudi Arabia – Bangladesh’s biggest manpower market – last year.
Officials said around 25-30 per cent of them are yet to get permanent jobs.
Besides, 87,000 female domestic workers who went to that country had been sexually harassed in various ways.
