Although the government has resumed international flights, many expatriate workers are facing difficulties in returning to Saudi Arabia due to the big gap between the demand for tickets and the frequency of flights. A syndicate of travel agents and a section of officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines are cashing in on this crisis and taking money from the workers in return for confirming their tickets back to the gulf country, several workers alleged.
Although officials of the national flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines said re-issuing of return tickets will cost no extra money, the workers alleged that the syndicate was charging between Tk 10,000 and Tk 50,000 in exchange for issuing a return ticket. However, Biman managing director and CEO said no agencies have permission to reissue tickets.
The cashing in on migrant workers’ panic persisted even as Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen yesterday said the Saudi Arabia government has extended the validity of visa and iqama (residence permit) for Bangladeshi expatriate workers till October 30. Workers and travel agency insiders said some agencies were working on social media in this regard to avoid detection. They were operating not just in Dhaka, but some outside Dhaka have also been involved in such unethical activities.
As a nation we are quite predictable in our behaviour. In almost every situation where a panic occurs whenever there is a shortage of products available in the market consumers panic and producers or suppliers use the opportunity to increase prices to the sky, fuelled by greed, without thinking that in fact they are gouging their countrymen.
The government can take stern action by getting the names of the Biman officials who are charging their customers the additional amounts without any legal authority if it really wanted to. All we need is stern action to correct these sort of fraudulent activities. In the case of the onion syndicates it was difficult to control the onion prices but this should not be the case here. Biman is a regulated hierarchy with clear job responsibilities so it should be very easy to find out who gave the orders to reissue tickets at what time.
We are used to being exploited by those in power but it is high time that the administration takes steps to correct. Our mentality has been weakened to the point that people can rape with impunity and no one dares protest because they think that the oppressors are affiliated with the party in power. It’s time that we let go of that mentality — oppression in any form is unacceptable — whether it is done by the British or by our own countrymen. It is time for the reign of terror to stop — in whatever form it exists.
