Undocumented workers in trouble

Several thousand Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia without any “entry documents” are in hot water, as they are not allowed either to return home or to legalise their status under the ongoing amnesty for foreign workers.
These migrant workers are mostly those who ran away from their legal employers leaving behind their passports and other documents that are kept by the employers, officials concerned said.
As a result, the workers do not have the necessary documents, and thus fail to prove that they entered the country through legal channels.
The KSA runs an amnesty programme now. It, however, tags a condition that the evidence of entering the country has to be submitted to take the advantage of the amnesty.
Saudi authorities had tagged the condition of having the entry documents, because there was a great number of cross-border migration from some neighbouring countries like Yemen, Nazmul Islam, consul general of Bangladesh consulate in Jeddah, told The Daily Star over the phone recently.
“We have explained to the Saudi authorities that there is no possibility for the Bangladeshis to cross the Saudi border. Somehow they might have lost their documents,” Nazmul Islam said.
Dr Emdadul Haque, labour minister of Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh, said a few thousand Bangladeshi workers who went to Saudi Arabia before 2008 did not have their fingerprints recorded with the Saudi immigration department, because the mechanism was not introduced before 2008.
“Therefore, the evidence of their entry cannot be verified even by taking fingerprints,” he told The Daily Star over the phone.
Nazmul said the Saudi authorities had assured them of looking into this particular matter later. The foreign minister and expatriates' welfare minister had also raised the issue during their recent visits to the kingdom, he added.
Migrants feel comfortable as the Saudi authorities had extended the amnesty period until November 4 from July 4, Hanif Mia, a migrant Bangladeshi worker in Riyadh, told The Daily Star on July 31.
But the people without any entry documents fear arrest, because the authorities have declared the penalty of hefty sum or imprisonment for those who are not utilising the amnesty.
A total of 2.6 lakh irregular Bangladeshi workers have so far received their documents from the Bangladesh missions to get advantage of the amnesty.