Reza Mahmud :
Undocumented Bangladeshis in Greece have become helpless as nobody stands beside them when the authority has taken hard actions against them.
Most of them are passing days in very hardship and failed to do work and earn money for livelihood due to arrest spree of the police.
Sources said, about 20,000 Bangladeshi undocumented workers are living in the Mediterranean country and are working in agriculture and other sectors in capital Athens and different areas.
Police in recent weeks detained and searched about 2500 migrants and kept about 600 in detention centers most of them are Bangladeshis.
The undocumented workers have chances to work and earn money because the country extremely needed foreign workers in its agriculture and other sectors.
But since the last February, the authorities of the country started arrest campaigns against the undocumented foreign workers.
The authority sent back about 19 Bangladeshi undocumented migrants so far.
They are conducting campaign arrest almost every day to search and detain undocumented migrants for sending them back.
Such actions created panic among the migrants who have not legal residential and work permits in the country.
Those migrants have said that though they have not legal documents due to several logical reasons, but they are working there for long and contributing to boost the Greece economy.
“There are several community based organisations there including ‘Bangladesh Community in Greece’, but nobody becomes vocal for us.,” said one of those undocumented Bangladeshi workers in Athens.
Only Migrants Rights Forum, Greece chapter are working hard for favouring those.
The forum demanded end of ending the arrest spree as the foreign workers were working hard even during the pandemic for keeping run the wheel of the country’s economy.
Leaders of the migrants’ rights forum said police almost every moment conduct raids in the residents and workplaces of those undocumented workers who working hard for long there.
Most of them are working in the water melon, Olive garden and strawberry fields which are the major financial crops of Greece.
Bangladeshi expatriates of the country also alleged that they are made victims of police harassments even in case of legal workers also.
Besides, they are also being victimized of stealing, robbery and snatching incidents constantly but failed to get any remedies.
They urged all expatriates organizations to stand beside them and call for strike in all workplaces so that the authority realized their problems.
Undocumented Bangladeshis in Athens said that the migrants of the country are 19th among the all expatriates and fourth in Europe on sending remittance since July 2021 to January 2022.
They are seeking Bangladesh government’s help in this regards saying the both countries have signed MoU in February for recruiting and permitting Bangladeshi workers to stay in Greece legally.
When contacted Imran Ahmed, Minister of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment told The New Nation, “As per the MoU inked between Dhaka and Athens they will give work permits to Bangladeshi workers already staying in the country. We have to wait until the MoU to be passed in April in their Parliament.”
The minister said that he will investigate the matter and will take necessary measures through diplomatic channel.
Meanwhile, officials from Athens Bangladesh Embassy said that they have no clear evidence of police actions against migrant workers.
They said that police only are taking actions against drug peddlers and Bangladeshi migrants are not involved with such matters so they might not face any problem.
