Bangladeshis In Foreign Jails
No step yet to get them released
More than 2,000 Bangladeshi workers who have been languishing in foreign prisons are spending their days in frustration, as the Bangladesh government is yet to take any steps to have them released. The prisoners are in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Libya and Italy, according to reports of Bangladesh’s missions in the countries.The labour counsellors of the missions submitted the reports to the government at a labour attaché conference held in Dhaka last month.
Over 1,000 Bangladeshis are behind bars in Malaysia alone, on charges of illegal entry, violation of labour laws, murder, theft and some other crimes. Saudi Arabia comes second, with at least 598 Bangladeshis in its prisons.
The missions’ officials urged the Bangladesh foreign affairs ministry and its expatriates welfare ministry to take effective measures to broker their release immediately.
The officials recommended the ministries take strict measures to prevent illegal migration of Bangladeshis abroad and pay special attention when dealing with it.
“Necessary security checks have to be made in Bangladesh before sending any worker abroad. This will ensure legal entry of Bangladeshis and their crimes will go down,” said a labour counsellor in his report.
“If the Bangladeshis’ criminal activities cannot be stopped abroad, the labour recruiters may leave us,” he mentioned.
The labour counsellors urged the government to make sure migrant job seekers have the required clearance before departure so that no one with a criminal record can go abroad.
Rudaw English, a private online newspaper from the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, reported on September 26 that 79 Bangladeshi nationals had been held for months in a Kurdistan prison without trial.
Based on this and other media reports, the Bangladeshi foreign ministry sent a letter to its embassy in Baghdad to have them freed, “but no effective measures were taken for the victims”, said Lt Col Ziadur Rahman, labour counsellor of the embassy.
Replying to the letter, he suggested that the ministry take the help of International Organisation for Migration because the issue had become “very complex”, he told The Daily Star over the phone recently.
Rahman added that he had contacted the interior ministry of the Kurdistan administration but the authorities there were uncooperative.
The embassy then made repeated requests to the two Bangladeshi ministries about the prisoners, who had been held for illegal entry from neighbouring Iran in March. But to no avail.
Contacted, Nazrul Islam, Bangladesh foreign ministry director general (west and central Asia wing), said the ministry was working on it, adding, however, “It is taking long.”
-With The Daily Star input
