7.5 lakh Bangladeshi workers in KSA fear deportation

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Over 7.5 lakh Bangladeshi personnel in Saudi Arabia are actually in fear of receiving deported from the country as their Iqamas-resident cards and work permits-possess expired.

The workers cannot renew their work permits due to the Saudization of jobs and the increased service fees for renewal of job permits, according to a written report prepared by the Prime Minister’s Business office.

The PMO sent copies of the are accountable to the secretaries of the ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment asking them to take important actions.

On February 5, 2020, the EWOE ministry’s work wing set up the PMO report titled ‘The current unfortunate plight of Bangladeshi employees in Saudi Arabia and their repatriation to Bangladesh’ and forwarded it to all or any different relevant officials of the ministry.

The PMO prepared the report on January 7, 2020.

According to the report, 50 % greater than 15 lakh Bangladeshi personnel in Saudi Arabia misplaced their jobs upon the expiry of their task permits.

As a result they also became undocumented in Saudi Arabia.

When asked, EWOE ministry secretary Salim Reza told New Age that he was not aware about the survey that mentioned 50 % of the Bangladeshi employees in Saudi Arabia didn't renew their Iqamas.

Referring to his recent discussions with a Saudi delegation in a joint operating group assembly, he said that about 18 lakh employees from Bangladesh were approximated to be working in the Arab country.

After asked about the gradual go back of Bangladeshi workers from Saudi Arabia, the EWOE secretary talked to the Bangladesh labour counsellors in Saudi Arabia and informed MODERN that Bangladeshi workers were coming back under an amnesty launched about last December 22.

‘Bangladeshis who had been employed in Saudi Arabia for quite some time and became undocumented were returning under the special amnesty,’ he said.

Replying to a concern, Salim Reza explained that Bangladeshi personnel were facing problems in Saudi Arabia after heading there with so-called free visas, which should be discouraged by every.  

Since January 2017, Saudi Arabia has increased the Iqama renewal fee.

Based on the PMO report, Saudi Arabia deported by least 31, 605 Bangladeshi personnel in 2019 and 37, 889 in 2018 after detaining them at camps.

Based on the Saudi law, changing occupation or workplace is a punishable offence.

Job opportunities found in Saudi Arabia have shrunk due to the recession and Saudization of careers, says the PMO report.

Dishonest recruiting agencies are sending thousands of employees to Saudi Arabia on so-called no cost visas, without the attestation from the Bangladesh embassy or consulates standard on Saudi Arabia, says the report.

After landing for the reason that country with those free visas, the Bangladeshi migrants get not any job and lead a miserable life there, in line with the report.

These personnel also face arrest by Saudi police.

The record recommends  that before personnel are delivered to Saudi Arabia, their careers, function atmospheres and wages ought to be properly verified by the Bangladesh embassy in that country.

It also recommends blacklisting and other stern activities against the culprit recruiting agencies for flouting the federal government rules in place.

The report further recommends taking on the problem of increased work permit renewal payment with the Saudi authorities.

The Saudi government has taken a number of decisions to improve its revenue earnings so as to offset the impact of the falling oil prices, according to the Arab News daily.

The Saudi Passport Section asks migrant personnel to pay the service fees in advance to obtain work permits renewed.

Under the new Saudi rules, each worker was necessary to shell out 200 Saudi Riyal in 2018 for each and every month to obtain function permit renewed and 300 Riyal in 2019. The fee for 2020 is 400 Riyal.

Bangladeshi employees who find jobs in Saudi Arabia get month to month wages which range from 600 Riyals to 1200 Riyals.

Migrant rights activist Al Amin Noyon who worked found in Hazrat Shahjalal AIRPORT TERMINAL as an facts officer of the BRAC Migration Programme told MODERN that he previously talked to a large number of migrant workers who returned from Saudi Arabia in last few years.

Migrant staff told him that they were hard-pressed to survive just after employers deducted annual Iqama renewal costs from their month to month wages, Al Amin said.  

Besides, many workers don't get jobs right after landing in Saudi Arabia, he said.

When asked, Dhaka University political science professor and Refugee and Migratory Movements Study Unit founding chair Tasneem Siddiqui told MODERN that the Bangladesh federal government should promptly estimate the increased expense of Iqama renewal to sit with the Saudi federal government.

‘Diplomatic steps should also be taken immediately by the Bangladesh ambassador in Saudi Arabia to request the authorities there to reconsider the improved costs for the Iqama renewal,’ she said.

If important high-level delegations from Bangladesh ought to be sent to that country, she viewed.

Tasneem also said that the style in Bangladesh of sending workers on ‘free- visas’ ought to be stopped because the workers with such visas would continue steadily to face the same complications after landing there.

On the other hand, another 145 Bangladeshi personnel were deported from Saudi Arabia early Sunday simply by a Saudi airline which landed in Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 12:15am, said officials.

BRAC Migration Programme officials in collaboration with Wage Earners’ Welfare Panel provided emergency support to them at the airport.

Since January this year, over 5,500 workers have been sent back from Saudi Arabia, said HSIA officials.

Shahidul Islam from Shibpur upzila of Narsingdi, a returnee, said that he previously attended Saudi Arabia three months in the past by spending Tk 3 lakh to work as a driver.

He said that he was repaid empty-handed without citing any motive.

Bijoy Miah and Nasir Uddin from the same place who too returned home Sunday night said that that they had gone to that region by spending Tk 3 lakh each with traveling visas.

But on reaching generally there, their employers did not arrange work permits for them, they said.

When Saudi law enforcement detained them, they contacted their companies but the employers didn't take their responsibilities, they said.

BRAC Migration Program mind Shariful Islam said, ‘We have found that various of the staff were sent back from Saudi Arabia within a short while,from three a few months to one year, once they reached that country.’

Referring to returnees, he said that as employers weren't taking obligations of the employees in Saudi Arabia the federal government of Bangladesh should check out the allegations.

If the Bangladesh government will not take the tasks of the personnel, the federal government should stop sending personnel to Saudi Arabia,’ he said.

Bangladesh Civil Contemporary society for Migration co-seat Syed Saiful Haque said that it had been alarming for Bangladesh as a big number of its staff remained undocumented on the expiry of their work permits.

‘Immediate diplomatic steps ought to be considered by the Bangladesh mission there to consider up the issue with the Saudi Arabia authorities,’ he said.

He as well said that poor migrant personnel of Bangladesh spent large sums of money for careers found in Saudi Arabia and therefore they must be compensated for their premature return.
Source: https://www.newagebd.net

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