Abu Dhabi police detained about 220 Bangladeshi workers on charges of staying there without valid documents, Dubai GulfNews reported on Sunday.
However, the foreign and expatriate welfare ministries in Dhaka did not have any information about the reported detention of the workers in Abu Dhabi.
On a tip-off that the workers were living in unhygienic conditions, Abu Dhabi police had raided a workers’ accommodation site in the Musaffah Industrial Area and detained 220, out of 300, Bangladeshi workers.
The paper, however, did not mention when the drive was conducted.
‘Our teams were successful in apprehending those who violated the UAE laws by working without valid identification. Out of the 300 labourers we inspected at the camp, 220 were found to have false documents,’ major general Nasser Bin Al Awadi Al Menhali, undersecretary of the ministry of interior in Abu Dhabi, said.
‘The workers tried to flee but they were apprehended,’ he said.
Al Menhali also noted that inspectors had found the accommodations did not follow the health and safety requirements.
‘It was overcrowded, there were many cockroaches. It was dirty and there was a high risk of transmission of various diseases,’ he said.
He said entry and residence violators could face a two-month imprisonment and a Dh100,000 fine. Company owners who violate UAE labour law will be fined Dh50,000 each.
Asked about the reported detention of 220 Bangladeshi workers, expatriate welfare minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain told New Age Sunday evening, ‘This is for the first time I have heard it’.
None of the diplomatic and labour wings of the Bangladesh mission in Abu Dhabi had informed the foreign and expatriate welfare ministries anything about the reported incident, two top officials of the ministries said.
Courtesy of New Age
