14 workers stay trapped in Iraq
Fear haunts them every moment, for they are under constant threats from the employer. In a labour accommodation facility in the Iraqi city of Najaf, 160 kilometers south of Baghdad, food is available but they do not feel like eating.
“We are falling sick because of the tension and uncertainty over returning home. Some of us often get fever. Some got pain in their hands and legs. One has had his legs and hands swelled,” said Shafiqul Islam, one of the 14 Bangladeshi workers trapped there.
“Now that I am talking to you, I am worried that I might be beaten up if the supervisor comes to know it,” he told The Daily Star over the phone yesterday.
Shafiqul is one of the 27 workers who had been sent to Iraq between January and February last year. They were all promised construction jobs at M Kodia Co General Trading at a monthly salary of $350.
Four recruiting agencies -- Meghna Trade International, Morning Sun Enterprise, East Bengal Overseas and Idea International -- charged each of them Tk 4 lakh to send them there.
Bangladesh Migrants Foundation (BMF), a rights group of overseas workers, was also involved in the process.
However, once they reached Iraq they were left confined to the accommodation facility for months without work and good food as the employer could not start the project.
Following a series of demonstrations and repeated pleas of their relatives in Dhaka since July last year, 11 workers were repatriated by the employer on November 30.
Upon their return, they filed a human trafficking case the next day. This led to the arrests of BMF Chairman Joynal Abedin in December and Nasir Khan of Meghna Trade International early this month.
On December 14, the returnees demanded the immediate repatriation of the 14 remaining (two others have escaped the facility and their whereabouts could not be immediately known) workers. But their call went in vain.
Yesterday, they again staged a demonstration outside the expatriates welfare ministry in the capital's Old Elephant Road.
Mozammel, a returnee, told this newspaper that they would continue to demonstrate until their fellow workers came home.
“We cannot sit idle when our fellow workers are in danger in Iraq,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shafiqul Islam from Najaf expressed his frustration over the role of the Bangladesh embassy in Iraq.
“Whenever we call the embassy, they say they cannot do anything for us,” he said, adding: “An embassy official said they ordered the employer to repatriate us home, but that did not happen."
He said the employer, Haider, was not meeting them for the last one month. And Karim, a broker who was involved in their migration process, was threatening them with dire consequences if they returned home.
“Please take us home. We don't want food or money… we just want to go back home, we don't want to die here,” Shafiqul cried.
Contacted, Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said the Bangladesh embassy was trying to find jobs for them.
“Why are you so worried and forcing them [workers] to return home? If we can keep 85 lakh Bangladeshis safe, we can also keep these 14 workers safe,” he said.
At one point, the minister told this correspondent: “You call them and ask them to contact our labour consular. He will arrange their repatriation.”
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