41 more Bangladeshis return from Iraq
Forty one more Bangladeshi workers returned home from Iraq yesterday on 'security grounds' as the war-torn country is facing severe internal conflicts involving different forces.
The workers landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka by a Qatar Airways flight around 6:00am.
"The ongoing conflict among different groups in Iraq made the workplace unsafe and we did not want to work amid uncertainty and risk to life," Shariful Islam, one of the returnees, told The Daily Star.
Around 4000 Bangladeshis, including the returnees, worked in Hanwha Engineering and Construction, a South Korean company, on a project named 'Bismaya New City Project' in South Baghdad.
However, an incident of assault on a fellow colleague by Iraqi police last month prompted the Bangladeshis to take the decision to return.
"If the Iraqi police can beat us in our labour camps, it will be very easy for them to shoot us next time," Shariful added.
He went to Iraq in November last year and was getting a handsome salary from the company but returned home for the sake of security only.
Shariful said 200 more Bangladeshis, who work in the same company, might return home on July 10 and July 14.
Earlier on July 1, 27 other workers of the same company returned home on the same ground.
Another returnee, Aftab Ahmed, however, alleged that they did not get any response from the Bangladesh embassy despite several attempts to communicate the officials since the conflict started.
"We tried to communicate with our embassy officials since the trouble began here. We wanted to know if we should stay," he added.
Maj Gen Rezanur Rahman Khan, Bangladesh ambassador in Iraq, however, said the workers could not claim that the embassy did not respond to their calls.
"Since an unexpected incident occurred in the company, we have regular communication with the management which has given us assurance of security of our people," he told The Daily Star yesterday.
Besides, the local Iraqi administrations had also expressed their concern over the incident and promised not to repeat such incidents, the envoy added.
It was not possible to inform the workers individually that the embassy was in touch with their employing company, the envoy added.
"The company gave me a list of 110 workers, who wanted to return to Bangladesh. The overall situation in the company was stable and our people were not facing any problem," he further added.
Over 20,000 Bangladeshis are working in various sectors in Iraq, according to the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry.
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