Although the government’s ‘inaction’ is blamed for the return of female domestic helps from Saudi Arabia after being abused there, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam has said they cannot do anything unless the victims lodge any formal complaint.
Talking to UNB, he acknowledged receiving reports of workers being abused in Saudi Arabia, saying still workers are being sent there and they cannot take any preventive measures as there is no formal complaint.
The minister said officials from his ministry went to some of the abused workers’ houses based on the media reports, but their addresses were found wrong.
He said someone must formally lodge a complaint so that his ministry can take necessary steps.
Md Shariful Hasan, programme head of Brac Migration, told UNB that over 5,000 female workers who used to work as domestic helps in Saudi Arabia returned home in the last three years.
He cited non-payment of salaries, and physical, mental and sexual harassment as the reasons behind their return.
In May last, 260 workers returned home while the number was 188 in June, Shariful said. Although seven workers have reportedly lost their mental stability after being abused, the government has taken no effective step to prevent all this, he alleged. Criticising the ‘government inaction’ over the recent return of the abused female domestic workers from the Middle East, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) recently demanded the government take immediate action to stop such injustice and ensure accountability of the agencies concerned.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said such return of the abused workers from the Middle East reflects the absence of good governance in overseas recruitment sector as well as the ‘inaction of the authorities concerned and lack of their responsiveness to women’s rights’.
Rupali, 26, who hails from Chandpur’s Matlab upazila, returned home on June 30 by a Jet Airways flight. She went to Saudi Arabia two years back, but had stopped sending her wages for 10 months into her employment, said her mother Fatima Khatun. She came back for a vacation after staying there for 14 months and returned this time mentally unstable, Fatima claimed. “She now speaks incoherently.”
Tania, 21, from Dhaka, told UNB that she returned home one month ago as her employer used to abuse her physically and sexually-hitting her if she did not comply with.
She tried to tell her employer’s wife everything, but could not. Hailing from Sylhet, Rehana, 30, who returned home three months ago, said she was employed at a Saudi home for nine months, but she received wages for the first three months only and nothing afterwards.
She alleged that they did not let her eat or rest properly, nor did they pay her wages after the first few months. She had spent Tk 1.5 lakh to go to Saudi Arabia.
Joint Secretary General of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman told UNB that Bangladesh started sending female workers to Saudi Arabia towards the end of 2015.
Currently, there are 2.15 lakh female workers in that country, he said, adding that 500-600 workers are going there every day on average. Refuting the allegations of returnee workers, he said first of all, female workers are sent to Saudi Arabia free of cost, but they have to sign a bond stating not to return to Bangladesh in the first two years.
“Some want to return home without any valid reason and they themselves have to bear the cost of coming back, Tk 2 lakh. In order to return urgently, they bring the allegations of abuse and non-payment of wages,” he said, adding that later the government pressurises the recruiting agencies to bear that cost. The allegations made by the workers are fabricated, Noman claimed, demanding evidence.
Citing Bangladesh Embassy and ministry sources, he said the percentage of abuse is currently 0.03 percent.
