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Workers returning from Kuwait
Kuwait has started deporting Bangladeshi workers who are doing menial jobs there after it faced strong demonstration by Asians demanding better wages, humane working environment and regular payment. One can easily realise their deplorable condition by seeing the faces of the returning workers, with tearful eyes, dressed in one cloth, empty hands and signs of physical abuse. These people are mostly employed by companies engaged in cleaning & other nominal maintenance jobs of municipalities & hospitals, offices & markets, schools & mosques etc. They are poorly & irregularly paid and live in houses resembling prison cells. The money they earn from legal employment for the first contract period of about 2-3 years is spent just to realise what they paid to the recruiting agency.
The comments and opinions expressed in the
editorial of The Daily Star of 1st August 08 are highly commendable. I worked in Saudi Arabia for about sixteen years and got the opportunity of seeing the condition of these persons employed in mostly cleaning and agricultural works. Virtually all of them need to work illegally outside their normal employment contracts in order to survive and realise the huge amount of money they spent to get the overseas jobs. They do all types of jobs, from car washing to carpet cleaning, hawkers' business, loading & unloading of heavy goods & materials etc. These people leave the country under some illusion and only understand the real situation when they are already in trouble. It is very unfortunate that our government is only counting the foreign currency they are earning but least care about their condition. As pointed out in the editorial of The Daily Star, the
government must come forward and adopt some firm and bold steps to stop ill treatment and discrimination to Bangladeshi workers by Kuwaiti employers and authorities. Our people are giving their hard labour and definitely have the right to get reasonable & justifiable remunerations and humane behaviour. Kuwait is a Muslim country and we expect our brotherly people there to abide by the guidelines of Islam in employing people.
If not today, they will have to pay dearly tomorrow for every drop of tears of these deprived workers. Engr. Md. Aminul Hoque
Khalishpur, Khulna
I have heard of many accounts of Bangladeshi workers' harrowing plight in the Middle East over the years. Friends living there have often mentioned that of all the working class population represented within the ME, many felt that the Bangladeshis were at the bottom of the social rung and repeatedly subjected to harassment. I'm sure that this situation is not exclusive to the Bangladeshi labourers. There are other nationalities that may have similar tales of low wages, long working hours, job insecurity, little or no access to health care facility and subjected to physical & sexual exploitation.
The cover picture of Bangladeshi worker Anwar Hossain arriving at ZIA from Kuwait (31st July, 2008) should make anyone stand up & protest the treatment Bangladeshi workers are often subjected to. I think what is more bewildering is that the workers themselves feel that they are unable to approach the Bangladesh consulates for help.
While wearing a blood soaked T-shirt and brandishing plasters may seem as a photo opportunity to illustrate the treatment of the law enforcing authorities, it also reflects an underlying inability & incompetence on the Bangladesh Embassy's part to assist people like Anwar Hossain. Since Bangladesh is recipient of their hard earned foreign exchange, surely it would be in the country's self interest to at least take some action to assist them. Unless our government does something to point out the difficulties faced by Bangladeshi workers, they will continue being humiliated & wronged.
Nahid Rahman
Oxford, UK