Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam BSc yesterday claimed that female Bangladeshi workers were coming back from Saudi Arabia not because of torture, but for lacking language skills and having different food habits.

The female workers in Saudi Arabia are in “good conditions” thanks to various steps taken by the Bangladesh government, he told parliament.

The minister was responding to a call attention notice brought by Jatiya Party MP Mahjabin Morshed under Section 71 of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament.

Earlier, Expatriates' Welfare Secretary Namita Halder had said many Bangladeshi women filed “false complaints” in Saudi Arabia to return home.

The minister and the secretary made the remarks although hundreds of female workers have returned from the oil-rich country after suffering inhume torture at the hands of their employers.

Some of them came back with broken limbs while some had injury marks all over their bodies. Many of them alleged that they were raped by their employers and their other family members.

Some of the returnees said their husbands were also not accepting them.

“Our stories of torture are so harrowing that we won't be able to tell [them]. Many women are tortured and abused. I request you, beg you to bring them back,” Sarabon Begum, a returnee migrant said in a recent programme in the capital, describing how her employer once beat her unconscious for refusing to eat stale food.

Despite these cases, the Bangladesh government did not come up with any initiative to take legal actions against those employers. And now, the minister has denied that the women are being tortured.

“It's true that some female workers are returning home from Saudi Arabia. But the reason behind their return is that they don't understand Saudi language. The Saudi food also does not suit their food habit,” he said.

“Sometimes, especially during the Ramadan, our female workers cannot take the heavy work load,” he said.

He claimed that the Bangladesh government was “cautious” so that Bangladeshi workers did not face any oppression at their workplace abroad.

In the notice, Mahjabin, an MP from the reserved seats for women, said many poor and helpless female workers were going to the Arab country to work hard and change the financial condition of their families.

“However, as they reach there, they are oppressed in different ways. They are not getting the promised salaries,” she said.

Mahjabin called upon the expatriates' welfare minister to take necessary measures to improve the situation.

She also suggested that the government take strong measures against the brokers who deceive such women.