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Confined in Iraq for Nearly 10 Months

27 Bangladeshis finally have hope of return

Staff Correspondent
After being confined in an Iraqi labour accommodation for nearly 10 months, 27 Bangladeshis yesterday finally got the assurance and some tickets to start returning home from tomorrow.
"Our employer Haider today gave 10 return tickets for flights within November. He assured of providing the rest tickets for flights between December 1 and 10," Shaon Ali, one of the 27, told The Daily Star over phone.
The development came amid a sit-in by relatives before the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) in the capital's Kakrail demanding either repatriation or employment.
The 27 construction workers went to Iraq in February and March through four Bangladeshi recruiting agencies spending Tk 3 to Tk 4 lakh
to work for an Iraqi company, M Kodia Co General Trading, for a monthly salary of I IS $350.
The company failed to start its construction project and kept the workers confined in the compound in Najaf, 160 kilometres off Baghdad.
Expecting that the stay was temporary; the migrants waited. But seeing no hope, they communicated of their situation to their relatives, who appealed to the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry and BMET in late July.
The relatives demonstrated in Dhaka twice and attended four BMET hearings between the relatives and the agencies, Morning Sun Enterprise, Megh na Trade International, East Bengal Overseas and Idea International, to no effect.
Shaon said their employer did not say whether they would be
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provided their wages.
"We will be out of hell if we can return home. Please pray for us," he said, adding that their health was deteriorating for not being provided adequate food and being kept in a place resemblinga prison.
Yesterday's sit-in by some 20 relatives was staged following another hearing where they were again provided no assurance.
They left only after BMET Additional Director General (employment) Javed Ahmed assured of meeting their demand in seven days.
"We really feel that the relatives and migrants are suffering a lot. It is our failure that we could not address it," Javed told The Daily Star.