Staff Reporter :
When the government is requesting the remittance heroes to send their hard earned money through legal channels to boost its foreign currency reserve, the manpower who wants to go to Saudi is captive in the hands of a syndicate.
They alleged that they are failing to get Saudi visas without giving bribes of at least $250 dollars for each visa to two recruiting agencies which have been involved in such extortions.
This syndicate comprising of five persons have already extorted about one thousand crore taka from these people in the last few months, sources said and most of the money has also been laundered abroad.
Some of the recruiting agencies have filed their allegations to different levels of the government, including the Saudi Embassy, but they have found no remedy.
According to sources, in order to grab money in the name of issuing visas, the issuance of visas has also been dropped at an alarming rate, which is ultimately affecting the manpower export to Saudi Arabia. Even an intelligence agency has got the proof about it.
But Proprietor of Enam International Enamul Haque and the Chairman of MCO Trading International Kazi Shakhawat Hossain Lintu have formed a syndicate since the beginning of the pandemic, sources alleged.
They syndicate manipulated the passport submitting day for visa to one day in a week which was four days earlier and only ten visas are issued in a week.
When this visas processing scandal came to light, the intelligence agency found that the syndicate is controlling the visa processing as it has an intimate relation with Saudi Embassy.
The agency also comes to know that Enam International is the ringleader of the syndicate and his office boy Helal collects the dollars against the visas from the recruiting agencies and laundered this money through Hundi.
Helal, Saidur and Billal collect passport lists and bribes from the recruiting agencies. They keep their commissions and hand over the remaining money to Enamul Haque and Kazi Lintu. Thus this syndicate has extorted several thousand crores of taka in the last six months.
However, no comments were found from the alleged persons.
The Saudi going people have been immensely suffering for not getting visas without bribes. These people said they have collected money to go to Saudi by selling their properties and collecting loans.
They said that only one recruiting agency can submit passports for one time in a week. Besides, the Embassy has cut the number of receiving passports to 10. After this the extortion began.
They alleged that this syndicate extorts $250 dollars for a worker visa and $700 dollars for a tourist visa.
Earlier the recruiting agencies could submit passports for four days in a week and unlimited applications, but now the agencies can submit the passports for a day in a week.
The recruiting agencies alleged that their passports are returned without any visas if the bribes are not meted out. Earlier, the Embassy used to mention the reason why a visa has been rejected but now it has stopped.
The aggrieved agencies filed a written complaint report to the Foreign Ministry and the Expatriate Ministry to get redress. But nothing works. Some recruiting agencies are not opening mouth in fear of licence blacklisting.
When the visa processing is being delayed, many of the workers are compelled to do second time medical test due to the expiration of the previous one. It takes additional ten thousand taka.
Meanwhile, thousands of Saudi going people are in despair due to the closure of Family Visa, Residence Visa, Business Visa and Student Visa in the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka.
As per the BMET, around 6.16 lakh people have gone to different countries in the current year so far. Of them, 3.86 lakh people have gone to Saudi Arabia which is 63 percent. The Saudi Embassy issued some six lakh visas in 2021.
