Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
Around 80,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers have returned home from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in the face of a crackdown on undocumented workers there.
The KSA earlier clarified that it will send back all the foreign workers who have no valid documents, mainly ‘Iqama.’
According to the Brac Migration Programme, a total of 79,106 Bangladesh workers returned from Saudi Arabia in the last five years.
Although many of the workers were sent back due to lack of proper documentation, some of the returnees claimed they were forced to come back even though they had valid legal documents.
Many of them also retuned home facing torture and abuse by their employers in the oil rich Gulf nation.
The Brac Migration Program chief Sariful Hasan said that most of the returnees went to KSA in free VISA.
“Even those who have the Iqama (valid work permit) in that country were also detained and sent to a deportation camp. Their employers did not take any effective measures even after being informed of their detention,” he added.
Quoting the workers, Sariful Hasan further said that local police detained several Bangladeshi migrant workers while they were returning home from work.
“As per the Saudi law, migrant workers have to work under the employer they signed a contract with. If they leave the job and work under another employer, they will be considered as undocumented,” Shariful explained.
“Our embassy should ask the Saudi Arabian government why they are deporting Bangladeshi migrants [even though they had valid documents], and then they can work on a solution based on their response,” the migration expert suggested.
When asked, Tanvir Hossain, Assistant Director at the Bureau of Manpower, Training and Employment (BMET) said that among the returnees were those who stayed overseas for even 18 to 19 years.
But he did not admit the allegation of abuse and torture.
BMET Director (employment) Atiqur Rahman told the media that he has no knowledge about the exact number of the returnees but the return of the workers is now almost common.
BMET sources claimed, 2,57,317 workers went to KSA in last year and 2,34,071 also till August this year.
Around 11 lakh Bangladeshis are staying in Saudi Arabia, they said.
The KSA authorities have arrested around 38 lakh foreigners, as it continues a crackdown on labor and residency violators, according to a report by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
A high official of the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, said, Saudi Arabia is being very strict regarding undocumented migrants.
“More people are migrating to countries like Saudi Arabia for jobs, but there are more job seekers than vacancies,” he said, adding that sometimes migrants have valid papers but there are no jobs for them.
