Following the declaration of general amnesty by the Saudi Arabian government to all expatriates who violated residency and labour regulations before April 6, 2013, thousands of Bangladeshi expatriates have rushed to the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh and general consulate in Jeddah. They are seeking new passports, renewal of their passports, and travel permits. It has become difficult for the staff of the embassy and consulate to handle the rush of Bangladeshi expatriates, who have been allowed to correct their status by transferring their ‘Iquama’ and change of job and stay in Saudi Arabia under the general amnesty scheme announced by the government of the Kingdom.
The Bangladesh embassy must provide new documents such as passports and travel permits and renew their passports by July 3 this year, the deadline for the expiry of the Saudi government’s amnesty.
Md Shahidul Islam, Bangladesh’s ambassador to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, told The Independent over phone on Monday that they are providing new travel documents like handwritten passports and travel permits to the Bangladeshi workers from morning to midnight. They are catering up to 3,000 workers every day.
“We need more manpower in order to cope with such an emergency,” he added. He said at least 62 officials, 18 from the foreign ministry, eight from the home ministry, 123 from the passport and immigration department and 24 from different Bangladesh missions abroad are rushing to Saudi Arabia to tackle the situation.
“We are even working during weekends to help our people in need so that they can avail of the amnesty within the deadline,” the ambassador said.
He added that they were getting help from the local newspapers and had deployed volunteers to disseminate information about the amnesty even by distributing leaflets.
“It is not possible to provide machine readable passports (MRPs) to our workers at this hour of crisis. So we are now issuing handwritten passports to tackle the situation,” Shahidul Islam further said.
Meanwhile, Khaza Mia, deputy secretary of the home ministry, said they are sending a team of eight senior assistant secretaries of the home ministry to Saudi Arabia within this month to provide necessary assistance to the Bangladeshi expatriates.
This situation was created after Saudi Arabia stopped the ‘Iquama’ and change of job of Bangladeshi workers since 2008. The problem has eased after the recent visit of foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni to Saudi Arabia.
According to the sources, there are around 15 lakh Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia. Of them, 25 per cent are living in inhuman conditions as their salaries have been arbitrarily deducted by their employers.
-With The Independent input
