Brutality in the name of remittance
I was very concerned by the report titled "The plight of Aleya" published in your newspaper on March 5, describing the horrible experience of an expat domestic worker who has just returned from Saudi Arabia.
We are hoping to become a middle income country soon, but at what cost? What about the values and dignity of our citizens? In the name of earning foreign currency, we are pushing our underprivileged citizens into terrible conditions. Around 1,000 women have come back home from Saudi Arabia due to various reasons till February this year.
Hundreds of families have submitted written applications to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) and the Wage Earners Welfare Board (WEWB) in the past few months, asking them to bring their relatives back from Saudi Arabia. Officials at the Bangladesh missions in Riyadh and Jeddah have reported more than 400 female migrants staying at separate safe houses after leaving their employers on allegations of abuse and illness.
Our embassies are so overwhelmed with so many complaints that they are struggling to handle the pressure.
If we cannot train our workers properly and arm them with the knowledge and ability to protect themselves in a foreign land, then we have no right to push them into the darkness this way. I hope our authorities will pay heed to this outcry and immediately stop these cruel trends.
Zubair Khaled Huq
Dhaka
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