Undocumented Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait are at risk of deportation, as authorities in the Gulf country have recently decided to launch a drive against illegal foreign workers there. Of an estimated 25,000 undocumented Bangladeshi workers, nearly 4,500 workers took the benefit of the amnesty programme that ended in April. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, Kuwait asked several labour-sending countries, including Bangladesh, to take back their undocumented workers from the Gulf country. However, Bangladesh government has not taken any sincere diplomatic effort to secure the labour market or to return the undocumented workers.
Earlier in June, Kuwait law enforcers arrested ruling party lawmaker Kazi Shahid Islam Paplu for laundering USD 163m to USA and involved in human trafficking in cohort of some influential quarters. Despite international media flooded with the allegation against the lawmaker, the government has not taken any action, not issued any official statement. On the other hand, Bangladesh ambassador in Kuwait defend the human trafficker that blurred the image of the country and thus, the government agencies itself spoil the labour market. Media outlets reported that about 26,000 undocumented foreign workers took the benefit of the amnesty but 75,000 undocumented foreign workers still live in the country. Kuwait also warned that the countries that will not take back their undocumented workers might not get priority when it starts fresh recruitment of workers. We know Bangladeshi migrant workers in Kuwait have been facing multi-faceted challenges. A bill in the pipeline to pass that will allow only 1.5 lakh Bangladeshis in the country, where around 3.5 lakh Bangladeshis are employed in different sectors.
Last year, Bangladeshi migrant workers sent more than $1.5 billion in remittance from Kuwait. Between April 1 and August 26 this year, some 7,549 Bangladeshi migrant workers including 71 female workers returned home from Kuwait. The warning of labour repatriation was not new, however, the government seems reluctant to attend the plights of our expatriates, squeezing labour market and the human trafficking allegations. When the country’s economy undergoing hardest time for overspending in mega projects, unbridled corruption, capital flights, and unemployment, the forced return of the expatriates will bore the economy and penetrate with new anxiety in the economy.
It is known to all that the government is accountable to people and ministers and government functionaries wait for the orders from the prime minister’s office to find something to do. The government is not known for efficiency. Yet, we urge concerned authorities to help the repatriate workers in Kuwait so that they are not denied of their jobs.
