Migrants in peril

IT is beyond expectation that the response to a legitimate demand for unpaid wages by workers of a farm would be met with gunshots, not money. But the staff of a Greek strawberry farm committed such outrage against his Bangladeshi workers last Wednesday. As a result, some 32 workers were hurt.

According to reports, Bangladeshi workers protested and refused to join work as the owner of the farm failed to pay their salaries for over six months. Sadly though, without showing any sympathy to the plight of the workers, the owner asked them to get back to work rather than pay their dues.

And then as a sequel to an altercation between the workers and their Greek supervisors over the issue, the latter opened fire on the former leading to the injuries.

The incident is very unfortunate. Thanks to the intervention of Greece's law-enforcement department that those involved in the firing and the farm's owner have been arrested. Mercifully, Greek authorities made arrangements for treatment of the injured and also promised swift and exemplary punishment to the persons responsible for the firing.

While being appreciative of the host Greek authorities' prompt action against the errant farm owner and his staff, we would also expect that they would look into the cause of the incident and take urgent steps to address it by paying adequate compensation for the suffering workers including all their outstanding salaries.

We understand that Greece has been hard hit by debt-crisis and its falloutacute unemployment and expenditure cuts. But, given the crisis situation, more circumspection in terms of meeting the job contracts would have been in order.

Reassuringly, officials at the Bangladesh embassy in Greece informed that they would take efforts so that the Bangladeshi migrant workers may return to their jobs, or otherwise try to look for jobs elsewhere. However, they should have been more proactive about alleviating the suffering of the Bangladesh workers in Greece.