The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Low wages, inadequate facilities and deprivation by the job providers force Bangladeshi workers abroad to engage in illegal activities resulting in ban on fresh visas for them, informed sources say.

Returning home penniless such deprived Bangladeshi workers also fail to get back their contract money from local recruiting agencies allegedly due to lack of seriousness by the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).

One Jahangir Alam from Comilla recently came back from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) penniless after being deprived of promised employment reportedly by one Dallah Group in Jeddah.

Jahangir Alam was sent to Dallah Group by the local Carrier Overseas Consultants Ltd as storekeeper. The recruiting agency told Jahangir that he would be given 2,500 Saudi Riyal (SAR), overtime facilities, travel and daily allowances. It is alleged, before flying from the Zia International Airport in Dhaka, officials of the Carrier Overseas compelled Jahangir to sign a paper mentioning salary at SAR 1000 per month.

Jahangir alleged that he was promised a job in Jeddah but was sent to Qungfuda, under district of Zigan, 450 kilometres away from Jeddah. No terms and conditions of job were followed. He was paid 1000 SAR per month and given no other facilities.

"I have lodged complaints with the officials of the Carrier Overseas Consultants Ltd., but as they did not take any action, I left KSA," Jahangir said.

Jahangir did pay a job contract fee of Tk 2,20,000 selling all his property. "I want my money back and action against the recruiting agency for cheating me" the deprived foreign job seeker said.

Bangladesh labour law has fixerd minimum wages at SAR 650 per month for workers. The Dallah Group in KSA is reportedly paying only SAR 250 as salary and SAR 150 as food and other allowances.

"The deprived workers, who pay Tk 2 to Tk 2.5 lakh to the recruiting agencies thus find no alternative but to engage themselves in illegal activities like unauthorised jobs in KSA," he said.

The KSA government imposed ban on issuing fresh visa to Bangladeshi and Indian nationals early this year due to such illegal activities by them.

The workers who have to return home fail to realise their money from the recruiting agencies due to failure of BMET to take timely action.

The deprived workers come to the BMET day after day but fail to get any settlement of their claims. The recruiting agencies reportedly do not care for directives of the BMET. According to the rules, they are bound to follow the same. BMET is empowered to cancel the recruiting licence if any of those fail to follow its directives.

Abu Taher who returned from Malaysia filed a case against recruiting agency Rabeta International with BMET in January this year seeking his money back. No representative of Rabeta attended the trial in BMET although four notices were served. As a result, he is still to get any money back from the Rabeta international.