The bodies of at least seven dead Bangladeshis are brought home every month from South Africa, according to data of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.
They died mostly in indiscriminate shootings by miscreants in South Africa with its law and order deteriorating, said officials and migrants’ rights bodies.Three Bangladeshis were killed in ‘firings’ by ‘miscreants’ in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital on Sunday, foreign ministry officials confirmed.
The bodies of 63 dead Bangladeshis were flown to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in last nine months, BMET records showed.
The bodies of seven were brought home in January, nine in February, eight in March, seven in April, four in March, six in June, eight in July, six in August and eight in September, BMET data showed.
There is no official record as to how many Bangladeshis have gone to South Africa in search of work.
But basing on a South African survey, BMET officials assume that at least one lakh Bangladeshis are doing business there.
BMET director for the welfare of workers abroad Mohshin Chowdhury told New Age on Monday that under the government rules, Tk three lakh is given as grant to the family of each ‘legal’ migrant worker killed abroad.
Besides, the government also gives Tk 35,000 for the burial of each worker.
As no Bangladeshi took emigration clearance from BMET for going to South Africa, their families were only given burial cost of Tk 35,000 for each victim but not the one time grant of Tk three lakh, said Mohsin.
Zillur Rahman, director of programmes at SHISUK, an NGO working on irregular migrants, called it was very unfortunate that so many Bangladeshi young men opted for irregular migration to South Africa only to lose life.
He said Bangladesh government should sign an agreement with South Africa to facilitate legal migration to that country for work.
The government should, he said, arrange post mortem of the bodies arriving from different countries to determine the cause of deaths.
Workers from Bangladesh and other countries usually go to South Africa through irregular channels, crossing other African countries, Zillur said.
Courtesy of New Age
