The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

At least another 123 Bangladeshi workers have been sent back by Kuwait government yesterday, totalling so far the number to 201.

The Gulf kingdom announced on Wednesday that it would deport Bangladeshis who were involved in violence during the recent unrest over low pay.

The secretary of the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry,

Abdul Matin Chowdhury told, "According to reports, 78 Bangladeshis returned Wednesday night, and 123 arrived from Kuwait yesterday in two separate flights,"

On the confusion over the numbers of returnees in various newspaper reports published yesterday, the secretary said: "Communications with ZIA personnel had given rise to some anomalies in the number of returning Bangladeshis.

"People when deported are provided with alternative papers. Again, there were some who came back carrying their regular passports-that's how the anomalies occurred."

ZIA immigration chief Mahfuza Begum told reporters "A Kuwait and a Qatar Airways flight carried 123 Bangladeshis back home yesterday."

South Asian workers in Kuwait, including hundreds of Bangladeshis, staged demonstrations and went on strike Saturday demanding better working standards and pay.

Newspapers in the Gulf kingdom reported that some workers were paid as little as 8 Kuwaiti Dinars ($30 or Tk 2000) a month. Since the incidents of unrest, the Kuwait government has said it would increase the minimum wage of foreign workers to 40 Dinars ($151 or Tk 10,300).

However, The Kuwaiti authorities also announced Wednesday that they would examine video footage and photographs of protesting workers to find out those responsible for damaging vehicles and attacking police, and deport them.

Kuwait police arrested at least 800 Bangladeshi workers during the demonstrations, of which 300 were later released as no charges could be substantiated against them.

The Kuwaiti government has assured Bangladesh mission officials that all "innocent" workers will be spared after investigations.

Meanwhile, two top trade union leaders of the country have urged the Kuwaiti trade union movement to extend a helping hand to Bangladeshi workers facing repression in Kuwait and deportation by the authorities.

In a joint letter sent by email, Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal president Nazrul Islam Khan and Jatiya Sramik League general secretary Roy Ramesh Chandra made the appeal to the president and general secretary

of Kuwait Trade Union Federation.

The two trade union leaders expressed their anguish at the reported torture on the Bangladeshi workers and their deportation back home empty handed.

They hoped that the Kuwaiti trade union movement would give due importance to the issue and hold constructive talks with the employers in Kuwait so that the Bangladeshi workers could continue to work in that country.

The two leaders also urged the Kuwait trade union movement for its initiative to take back to work those workers who were being deported due to misreporting.

Nazrul Islam Khan, an alternate member of ILO governing body, and Roy Ramesh Chandra, are both executive members of Asia Pacific committee, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).