Reza Mahmud :
About 2200 Bangladeshi migrants died of covid-19 in different countries this year.
Among them, about 1100 migrants died in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia alone.
The government of Bangladesh announced that every deceased family will be given grant amounting to Tk three lakh only.
But, the families are facing serious hardships to get the government grants due to the non-cooperative attitudes of the labour counselors of the Bangladeshi embassies in concern countries.
Concern officials of Wage Earners’ Welfare Board (WEWB) said, there are lots of files of such cases dumped in their desks.
But they failed to hand over grants to the relatives of the deceased due to less response from the labour counselors of related embassies.
“Relatives of many migrants who died from covid abroad are insisting on us to hand over their grants, but we feel really helpless. We cannot give them the government grants without proper procedures and documents,” one of the officials told The New Nation from the WEWB on Thursday.
Sources said as per the government’s announcement, all of the deceased Bangladeshi migrants would be eligible to get the grants of Tk Three lakh if they worked legally or I those who were undocumented workers.
As per the regulations, only families of documented workers get the grant in cases of death abroad.
But the Prime Minister announced that undocumented workers would also get the grant in case of covid deaths.
They said the WEWB has been established in 1990 but people who went abroad before establishing the board are also eligible to get the grant as covid deceased.
WEWB officials said, about 13 officials have been stipulated for solving such cases only for those who died in the KSA.
Besides, one separate official has been fixed for doing such jobs in respective country.
Documents from the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, said, the 2200 Bangladeshi expatriates died abroad since January to August30 this year.
Of them, Italy has the second largest number of covid death BD people after Saudi Arabia.
About 200 Bangladeshi migrants have died in Italy, while less than one hundred died in the other countries, as per the data.
The WEWB officials said the covid deaths were buried in the related countries where they worked.
As such, the labour counselors of the Bangladeshi embassies in those countries are responsible to send documents of those covid deaths people.
The relatives of those deceased have submitted thousands of their claims to the WEWB office in Dhaka.
They repeatedly are sending letters asking for documents of the deceased so that the grants to their families may be given.
But in many cases, the officials of embassies replied to very few letters of WEWB.
The officials and the relatives of deceased have urged the foreign ministry to take immediate measures so that the quick handover of the grant could be possible.
