Special Correspondent :
About 800 women come back to Bangladesh in the past eight months escaping the torture and abuse from employers in Saudi Arabia.
On August 27, a total of 109 female workers who went to Saudi Arabia as domestic help returned home after suffering various forms of abuse at the hands of their employers in the oil-rich Gulf nation.
The returnees told aid workers that their employers inflicted physical and sexual abuse, which drove them all to flee.
Besides, 400 more Bangladeshi maids, who are currently in a safe home operated by the Bangladesh Embassy at Riyadh, are waiting for return.
“Many of the returnees accused their employers of torture and abuse,” an official of BRAC migration programme told The New Nation on Friday on condition of anonymity.
BRAC is helping the Bangladeshi maids to return home.
“Even some of the returnees told us about sexual harassed by their employers,” added the BRAC official.
According to him, many returned home earlier took shelter at Bangladesh government run safe home in Riyadh fleeing their abusive employers.
The BRAC official said that the female workers were rescued based on their complaints to the Bangladesh mission and sheltered at the safe home before sending them home.
“Not only the migrant women workers in Saudia Arabia alone, many of those went with similar jobs to Qatar, United Arab Emirates and other Middle-East countries have told us similar stories of abuse and torture,” he added.
According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), a total of 68,286 female workers went to Saudi Arabia in 2016.
The number went up to 83,354 in 2017 while it went down to 73,713 in 2018.
As of July this year, 44,002 female workers have gone to Saudi Arabia.
The vast majority of the women, who went to work in Saudi Arabia, came from Bangladesh’s rural areas, where poverty is rife.
About 800 women come back to Bangladesh in the past eight months escaping the torture and abuse from employers in Saudi Arabia.
On August 27, a total of 109 female workers who went to Saudi Arabia as domestic help returned home after suffering various forms of abuse at the hands of their employers in the oil-rich Gulf nation.
The returnees told aid workers that their employers inflicted physical and sexual abuse, which drove them all to flee.
Besides, 400 more Bangladeshi maids, who are currently in a safe home operated by the Bangladesh Embassy at Riyadh, are waiting for return.
“Many of the returnees accused their employers of torture and abuse,” an official of BRAC migration programme told The New Nation on Friday on condition of anonymity.
BRAC is helping the Bangladeshi maids to return home.
“Even some of the returnees told us about sexual harassed by their employers,” added the BRAC official.
According to him, many returned home earlier took shelter at Bangladesh government run safe home in Riyadh fleeing their abusive employers.
The BRAC official said that the female workers were rescued based on their complaints to the Bangladesh mission and sheltered at the safe home before sending them home.
“Not only the migrant women workers in Saudia Arabia alone, many of those went with similar jobs to Qatar, United Arab Emirates and other Middle-East countries have told us similar stories of abuse and torture,” he added.
According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), a total of 68,286 female workers went to Saudi Arabia in 2016.
The number went up to 83,354 in 2017 while it went down to 73,713 in 2018.
As of July this year, 44,002 female workers have gone to Saudi Arabia.
The vast majority of the women, who went to work in Saudi Arabia, came from Bangladesh’s rural areas, where poverty is rife.
