KSA deports another 80 Bangladeshis
The Saudi authorities yesterday deported 80 more Bangladeshi migrants, bringing the total number of deportees close to 600 this month.
The migrants, including those having valid iqamas (residence permit), arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on a Saudia Airlines flight around 3:30pm, said Tanvir Hossain, assistant director at the expatriates' welfare desk at the airport.
“Many of the returnees said they were detained and deported despite having iqamas,” Tanvir told this correspondent.
Al-Amin Gazi of Chandpur's Faridganj said he went to the Middle Eastern country in December last year spending Tk 6.5 lakh. However, his employer didn't arrange iqama for him.
He said one of his relatives gave him Tk 1.5 lakh and with that money he secured an iqama. He could then work at a company as a construction worker for only one and a half months.
But police picked him up over a week ago as he stepped out of his home in Riyadh. He was sent to a detention centre in Dammam before being deported yesterday.
“I have returned broke. How will I recoup the money I have spent?” said a hapless Al-Amin.
Tanvir of the expatriates' welfare desk said some of the returnees overstayed their visas.
According to the desk, nearly 15,000 Bangladeshi migrants returned home from Saudi Arabia between January and August this year.
Tanvir, however, could not confirm how many of them had valid iqamas.
Some two million Bangladeshi migrants have been working in Saudi Arabia. The country has recently adopted a policy on recruiting more locals.
To make it happen, it has imposed levies on the companies hiring foreign workers and barred foreigners from taking up jobs in 12 types of businesses, including shops selling watches, optical materials, medical equipment, electrical and electronic products, car parts, building materials, carpets, and mobile phones.
Bangladesh embassy officials in Riyadh said the measures came as part of the Saudi government's economic and labour policy reforms to create more jobs for locals.
“The Saudi authorities are enforcing immigration laws in a more stringent way,” Golam Moshi, Bangladesh ambassador to the Kingdom, recently told this correspondent.
Recruiting agents said a good number of Bangladeshis went to Saudi Arabia on so-called “free visas”. Such visas are arranged by Saudi companies, but the migrants need to find their jobs themselves.
“This sort of arrangement is illegal. That's one of the reasons why people having iqamas are being deported,” said Abdul Alim, a recruiting agent.
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