80 more BD expats return from KSA

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Staff Reporter :
Eighty Bangladeshi expatriates returned from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with signs of frustration in their faces yesterday. So far a total of 600 expatriates returned in October this year despite having legal papers.
Confirming the matter, Tanvir Hossain, Assistant Director at the Expatriates Welfare Desk at the airport said that the migrants, including those who had valid iqama (residence permit), arrived in the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by a Saudi Airline flight around 3:30pm.
“Many of them said they had iqamas, yet they were detained and deported,” Tanvir told the media.
One victim, Al-Amin Gazi of Faridganj in Chandpur, said he went to Saudi Arabia in December last year, spending a total of Tk 6.5 lakh. His company, however, did not accept his iqama, he claimed.
He said, a relative of him then spent worth Tk 1.5 lakh for securing the iqama and then he could work for one and a half months as a construction worker in a company.
He also said that police caught him more than a week ago as he stepped out of his residence in Riyadh and took him into a detention centre in Dammam and deported on Wednesday.
“I have returned penniless. How do i recover the money which i spent?” Al-Amin further said.
Around 15,000 Bangladeshi migrants returned
from Saudi Arabia between January and August this year, Expatriates’ Welfare Desk confirmed the news.
It is noted that Saudi Arabia, home to some two million Bangladeshi migrants, has adopted a policy of recruiting locals by imposing high levies for the companies hiring foreign workers and by preventing foreigners from taking up jobs in 12 sectors.
Questioning on the issue, Bangladesh embassy officials in Riyadh said the measures came as part of economic and labour reform measures to create more jobs for the locals.
Golam Moshi, Bangladesh Ambassador to the Kingdom said “Saudi authorities are enforcing immigration laws in a more stringent way.
Recruiting agents said, a good number of Bangladeshis went to Saudi Arabia with so-called free visas, which means the companies arranged visas for them, but not jobs and the migrants can work independently.
A recruiting agent, Abdul Alim told the media that this task is illegal. Actually those people who have iqamas(residence permit) how can they be deported?
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