‘Just want to return home’

The Bangladesh embassy in Hanoi is asking the 27 Bangladeshis stranded there to go back to work in Ho Chi Minh City, but the workers are sticking to their demand of repatriation at the earliest.

Facing abuses and threats by the manpower brokers, these Bangladeshis travelled to Hanoi on July 2 to seek embassy help for repatriation.

They could not be repatriated at the time as their passports were confiscated by their brokers and they did not have airfare.

The embassy, in collaboration with the Vietnamese authorities, sheltered them in hotels.

"Vietnamese police and our embassy are giving us two options -- returning to the factories or going to the detention centre," Shital Chandra Sarker, one of the 27 Bangladeshis, told The Daily Star by phone on Monday.

He said they don't want to go to work because the Chinese agent, with the help of Bangladeshi brokers -- Mostafa, Jabbar, Saiful and Atiq -- has been abusing and extorting them over the last six months.

He said they all paid Tk 3.5 lakh to Tk 4 lakh to go to Vietnam where they were promised $500 or more basic monthly salary, but once they arrived in between January and February, their passports were confiscated by the brokers.

They were not provided any regular jobs but supplied to different factories and paid $100 to $150 a month when they had work.

"We were also not provided decent meals or accommodation. We gave money to our brokers to send home as we did not have options to go to the money exchange, but they stole that money," Shital said.

Brokers also threatened to kidnap those who spoke out.

Desperate, they went to the embassy on July 2. "We don't want to return to the exploitative agent; we just want to go back home," he said.

Contacted, Bangladesh Ambassador to Vietnam Samina Naz said the best option for the migrants now would be to get back to work as the international flights are yet to begin from Vietnam because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She said the embassy has communicated the issue to the ministries of expatriates' welfare and foreign affairs because all of those 27 Bangladeshis had BMET (Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training) certificates.

"We are waiting for a response from Dhaka on the cost of repatriation, as well as the operation of international flights from Vietnam," Samina Naz told The Daily Star Monday.

She said the cost of accommodation and food for the 27 Bangladeshis is $300 every day. Though Vietnam police arranged accommodation, it is not clear who will bear the cost.

Bangladesh embassy does not have any budget for such expenses, she said.

Shariful Hasan, head of Brac Migration Programme, said the Overseas Employment and Migration Act 2013 clearly says if the workers go abroad for jobs with the emigration clearances of the BMET, the recruiting agencies that arrange visas will bear the expenses of repatriation of the migrant workers if they are in danger.

"The government should immediately claim money from the recruiting agencies concerned, arrange accommodation and repatriation of the Bangladeshis now stranded there," he said.

Hasan said they have information that at least 80 other Bangladeshis in Vietnam are facing appalling conditions in different camps. They were taken to Vietnam for jobs but were not arranged work permits.

"It's not enough to repatriate them. The government should investigate the case seriously and punish those responsible," he said.

Asked, Expatriates' Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad said the ministry has already asked the six recruiting agencies to provide money for repatriating the workers from Vietnam.

A committee headed by a deputy secretary of the expatriates' welfare ministry has also been formed to investigate the case, he said.