2 Bangladeshis killed in UAE
Two Bangladeshi migrant workers were stabbed to death by their compatriot fellows in a brawl over a pair of shoes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday night.
Three other Bangladeshi workers were injured in the scuffle in the Sharjah city.
The deceased were identified as Azad Rahman, 25, and Dulal Hossain, 26, while the injured were Abdus Salam, Mohammad Saddam Hossain and Nazmul Haque. All of them hail from Comilla, said Mizanur Rahman, first secretary (labour) of Bangladesh Consulate in Dubai, yesterday.
“Such a grave incident over such a trifling matter like a pair of shoes has tarnished our image. This accident is a blow to our attempts to revive the image of Bangladeshi migrant workers in UAE which has already slapped restrictions on importing manpower from our country,” he told The Daily Star over the phone.
The injured have been transferred to Al Kuwaiti Hospital in Sharjah for treatment and their condition was stable, Mizanur said.
According to the consulate official, the brawl broke out at a labour accommodation in the Sharjah industrial area where some seven Bangladeshis first engaged in a heated argument over the ownership of a pair of shoes that one of them was wearing.
At one stage, one of them grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed another in the chest. The other five soon got hold of knives and engaged in a bloody fight.
Sharjah police are investigating the incident, Mizanur added.
The UAE, which used to be one of the largest labour recruiting countries, has put restrictions on hiring manpower from Bangladesh in August, 2012, alleging malpractices in the recruitment process and involvement of Bangladeshi migrant workers in criminal activities.
Manpower export to the Middle Eastern country has fallen drastically following the restriction.
The UAE recruited only 13,000 Bangladeshis in 2013 while it hired more than 2.20 lakh Bangladeshi workers between January and August in 2012 alone, according to the statistics of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.
Comments