The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

With the return of another 27 Bangladeshi workers yesterday from Kuwait Probashi Manab Kalyan Foundation (PMKF) demanded immediate diplomatic efforts at the top level for halting deportation of Bangladeshi workers illegally.

The immigration officer of ZIA, Mahfuza Begum, said, "A Kuwait Airlines light brought 27 Bangladeshi workers back to Dhaka yesterday morning at 5:00am, "Of the deportees, 13 held Bangladesh passports and the rest were issued out-passes and put on a homebound plane."

The total number of Bangladeshis sent back home following the workers' strike in Kuwait now stands at 228, she said. The Kuwait government sent back 78 Bangladeshis on Wednesday night and 123 on Thursday morning, after it announced that it would deport Bangladeshis who were involved in violence during recent unrest over low pay.

The Kuwaiti authorities had 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 them 300 were later released as no charges could be brought against them.

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

South Asian workers in Kuwait, including hundreds of Bangladeshis, staged demonstrations and strikes in the Gulf kingdom on July 26, demanding better working standards and pay. Newspapers in the Gulf kingdom reported that some workers are paid as little as 8 Kuwaiti Dinars ($30 or Tk 2,000) a month. Since the incidents of unrest, the Kuwait government has said it will increase the minimum wage of foreign workers to 40 Dinars ($151 or Tk 10,300).

The PMKF an organisation for the welfare of expatriate Bangladeshis, demanded stern action against those responsible for the recent deportation of Bangladeshi workers from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

"We strongly urge the Chief Adviser to take stern action within three days against the responsible persons, agencies and Bangladesh missions in the concerned countries," Prof Ruhul Amin, executive director of PMKF, told reporters at a briefing at the Jatiya Press Club in the afternoon.

He said they also request the government to make necessary diplomatic efforts at the top level for halting deportation of Bangladeshi workers illegally from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

PMKF chairman Abdur Rahman made an appeal to the government to give lump sum grant to the deportees from the Expatriates Welfare Fund.

He also urged the International Organisation for Migrants (IOM) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) as well as the Kuwaiti and Saudi authorities to take immediate initiative for the return of the outstanding dues of the deportee Bangladeshi workers.

Amin said some 301 Bangladeshi workers have so far been sent back from Kuwait and 250 from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while some 1,500 others were forcibly assembled in a camp in Kuwait in a bid to send them back.

He alleged that the Kuwaiti authorities forcibly put the workers on board the plane - half-dressed, bare-footed and in bleeding condition -- for deportation though, he said, they had done nothing wrong. "This is really inhuman."

Criticizing the Bangladesh embassies in those countries, Amin said they are doing nothing, just keeping mum. So, they should be sacked from their jobs.

Last week, the Bangladeshi workers staged demonstration in Kuwait as their Kuwaiti employers denied them the agreed wages. The Bangladeshi workers said they were appointed on 50 Kuwaiti Dinar as monthly wages, but were not paid in full.

But the Kuwait authorities alleged that all the deported Bangladeshi workers were involved in violence. Denying the allegation, the deported workers said they did not take part in any sort of violence and merely demonstrated peacefully to realize their just demands.