THE Bangladesh Consul General in New York Monirul Islam and his spouse have been sued for inhuman torturing of their domestic help– a Bangladeshi national they had taken to the USA 18 months ago and for not paying him against his work. A news report carried out by The New Post and also by national dailies in Bangladesh said the consul general took him to New York on promise of paying $3,000 monthly wages, but when he landed to the diplomat’s house they forced him to work as a slave. The domestic help, who fled from the diplomat’s home, filed the lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court on Friday and senior officials in foreign office in Dhaka have also confirmed it. The allegations said they held the boy in forced confinement over the months holding his passport and visa and threatening to kill him if he goes out. They would let him sleep in a storage closet or on a mattress in kitchen floor; allow him to keep his clothes in a plastic bag, eat expired or leftover food and forced to serve the couple mid-night snake. The consul general has however denied of the charges.
In fact, the Bangladesh consul general’s case emerged after a similar case had indicted India’s deputy consul general in New York Devyani Khobragade in a New York Federal Court for torturing her domestic help and denying proper payment violating the US laws. Devyani has meanwhile left the USA after a fiery diplomatic row between the two countries; and though the US Court has acquitted her for the time being for her diplomatic cover and a second indictment is under again way. What we want to say here is that the matter was highly embarrassing to the Indian government and a similar case is about to chase a Bangladesh diplomat now in the USA for a similar disgraceful handling of a poor domestic help. The matter of the fact is that the diplomat in question is about to move to Morocco as the new Bangladesh ambassador and his leaving the USA may become uncertain in this situation.
To be honest, there are thousands of domestic help inside Bangladesh who have similar stories. It is the ugliest and disgraceful side of our society and relentless efforts are at work to reduce cruelty to this hapless section of our population. But, it is totally unacceptable that a highly placed foreign office diplomat in New York would cruelly handle his domestic help and denies payment of wages despite the fact that he is regularly drawing allocations against his part of the job. It is a shame and it not only showed his low taste and mentality but also the high level of corruption at his level. We hold the view that a thorough investigation must be taken up to clear the cheating of the poor domestic help and figure out how much payment the diplomat may have taken with his salary and laundered it to his benefit. There may also be similar cases within the Bangladesh diplomatic community in the USA and other places. We ask the government to bring back such dishonest officers and such exploitation must come to a stop.
