Cheated returnees from Iraq demand damages
Thirteen returnees from Iraq who had been cheated by recruiting agencies demanded compensation from two agencies and cancellation of their licences yesterday.
The victims also urged the government to provide them with jobs at a human chain in front of Jatiya Press Club in the capital.
The demonstrators said they paid between Tk 2.5 lakh and Tk 3.70 lakh to four recruiting agencies, which promised them jobs in an Iraqi company.
However, when they arrived in the Middle-East country, there was no job. Instead, brokers of the agencies confined the migrant workers to a labour camp and asked them to wait, they added.
After a few months, the workers understood that they were cheated by the agencies, and after living in terrible conditions for nearly a year, they returned home empty-handed between November last year and January this year with the help of the Bangladesh mission in Iraq, the demonstrators narrated their ordeal.
“We did complain about the four agencies to the ministry [Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry], and sought compensation,” said Mozammel Haque, one of the victims.
“The minister himself assured us of taking action against the agencies, but we did not get our money back, nor were we compensated,” he added.
Two of the agencies returned money to three workers after they had come back, but the other two--Messrs Morning Sun Enterprise and Messrs Meghna Trade International--did not do so, he alleged.
Mozammel said when they contacted the ministry for compensation, its officials asked them to go to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), but when they contracted BMET officials, they were asked to wait.
“How many months do we have to wait?” asked Emaz Uddin Pramanik, another victim.
Emaz said he took Tk 80,000 loan from state-owned Karmasangsthan Bank to go to Iraq, and now the bank officials are asking for the loan repayment.
“How can I return the money now?” asked Emaz, who is now a rickshaw-puller.
A total of 27 migrant workers left for Iraq early last year. Of them, 22 came back to the country among whom three got their money back. Anirban Survivor Voice, a forum of returnees, helped form the human chain.
Comments