Staff Reporter :
A further 200 Bangladeshi workers forcibly sent back from Saudi Arabia on Friday night, amid a crackdown on illegal workers by the Saudi authorities.
However, many of the returnee workers said that they were deported despite having legal documents.
A flight carrying them landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) around 11:30pm, said Md Shariful Islam, who heads BRAC Migration Programme.
Saudi Arabia has returned over 16,000 Bangladeshi workers this year alone. Among them, the number of returnees on Friday exceeded any previous records.
BRAC provided them food, water and helped them to go home safely, said Shariful Islam.
One of the deported workers, Kurigram’s Akmat Ali, said he went with a dream of solvency five months ago but was forced to leave Saudi Arabia although he had permission (iqama) to stay there for 10 more months.
Samrat Sheikh of Gopalganj, said Saudi police arrested and deported him without examining his papers.
Saiful Islam of Narayanganj said that he had another six months’ permission to stay but was forced to leave the country.
Abdullah from Chattogram urged the government to take steps so that no one suffers misfortune like him.
With the help of Wage Earners’ Welfare Board (WEWB), BRAC has assisted about 804 workers this month alone.
Mentionable, as many as 257,317 workers went to Saudi Arab last year. Between January and August this year, 234,071 workers went to that country, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.
“The description given by the workers is tragic,” BRAC’s Shariful said, adding: “This time many of those forcibly sent back said that they had legal documents. Even many of them had gone to the Saudi Arabia only months ago.”
