The New Nation - Internet Edition

The Foreign Office has at long last come up with a press release on the situation of Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait, informed of engagement of the Bangladesh mission with the expatriate workers and the authorities there, and has assured continued diplomatic efforts to help protect their rights.

It reminded all that 'diplomacy with the Gulf countries have to be conducted very subtly. Sometimes they prefer telephonic and written communications and informal discussion to formal visits of delegations which run the risk of being seen as exertion of public pressure. Different cultures prefer to deal with foreigners in different ways, and Bangladeshi diplomacy is required to appreciate that and act accordingly,’ the Foreign Office said.

The press release said, the Bangladesh Embassy in Kuwait, in spite of its limited resources, made active endeavours to resolve the problem and contain the damage. From the beginning of the situation mission officials engaged with both the striking workers and the Kuwaiti authorities, it said.

On 17 August, 5000 workers of Al Zohora Cleaning Company started a fresh strike, but due to prompt intervention by the mission and Kuwaiti authorities, the workers called off their strike on 18 August 2008 and resumed their duties.

It was through their active role in negotiations that many of the longstanding grievances were removed. Three hundred of the detained workers were also released through their efforts and arrears of the deported workers would be realised from the companies, the press release said.

Kuwait is an important destination for Bangladeshi workers. At present there are about 2,50,000 Bangladeshis working in Kuwait. In 2007-2008 remittance amounting to US$ 779.4 million had been received from Kuwait. On 20 July about 5000 workers of a local cleaning company went on strike against longstanding grievances that included payment of lower salaries than the contracted amount, non payment of salary, long working hours with no holidays or leave, non payment of overtime, poor living conditions, inadequate medical facilities, maltreatment by supervisors including physical abuse and deduction of fees for Iquma (Residency permit) contrary to contract provisions.

A large number of workers of other companies also joined the strike. At one stage the striking workers resorted to some violent activities including damaging vehicles. This resulted in the arrest of hundreds of Bangladeshi workers and their deportation.

Following this a deal was struck through negotiations involving labour representatives, company owners, the officials of the Kuwaiti government and the Bangladesh mission. Under the agreement, the authority concerned gave assurance to fulfil the demands of the workers and consequently, the workers called off their strike. Following the successful negotiations, more than 80,000 workers of 27 companies resumed their work.

The point here is that the disaster that has befallen hundreds of Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait could have been averted had the mission there been active from the very beginning to bring to the notice of the authorities there the sad plight of the workers, and also made the latter aware of the harsh action they might have to face in the event of resorting to strike and violence.

There was little work to be done for the Bangladesh missions in the Middle Eastern countries other than economic diplomacy for securing the interests of the workers already employed and finding jobs for new workers. Had their activities been geared to looking after the welfare of the expatriate workers they would have had knowledge of their conditions of service and the state of their mind as some of them were deprived of promised amounts of salary and other benefits.

The situation thus could have been tackled well before the discontent of the workers exploded in the form of strike and violence.

One thing should be very clear here. The Bangladesh missions abroad should have location-specific well-defined jobs to do. In the case of the major destinations of migrant workers nothing could be more important than securing the interests of the workers. If the missions cannot justify their presence in the respective countries and fail to prove to be up to the challenges that they have to address, it is better they are changed.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the arrangement to settle complaints made by deceived workers at the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) is not properly working and hundreds of complaints remain unresolved. Upon the receipt of complaint the BMET is to call the relevant manpower agent and after hearing both sides give decisions like realisation of money of workers who prove to have been cheated. There is a provision that BMET can give ex parte decision in case manpower agents do not appear after being served with three consecutive notices, but such prompt decisions are seldom taken, it is alleged.