Dhaka, Oct 17 (Just News): Saudi authorities today deported eighty more Bangladeshi migrants, bringing the total number of deportees close to 600 in October this year.
The migrants, including those who had valid iqama (residence permit), arrived in the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in a Saudi Airline flight around 3:30pm, said Tanvir Hossain, assistant director at the expatriates’ welfare desk at the airport.
“Many of the returnees said they had iqamas, yet they were detained and deported,” said Tanvir.
One returnee, Al-Amin Gazi of Faridganj in Chandpur, said he went to Saudi Arabia in December last year, spending a total of Tk 6.5 lakh. His employer, however, did not arrange his iqama, he claimed.
He said a relative of him then spent worth Tk 1.5 lakh for securing the iqama and then he could work for one and a half months as a construction worker in a company.
He said police caught him over a week back as he stepped out of his residence in Riyadh and put him into a detention centre in Dammam and deported today.
“I have returned penniless. How do I recover the money I spent?” Al-Amin posed a question.
Tanvir Hossain of expatriates’ welfare desk at the airport said there were migrants who had iqamas and who overstayed.
According to expatriates’ welfare desk at the airport, nearly 15,000 Bangladeshi migrants returned from Saudi Arabia between January and August this year.
Tanvir Hossain, however, could not say for sure how many of the deportees had valid iqamas and the number of those who were deported because of overstaying their visas.
Saudi Arabia, home to some two million Bangladeshi migrants, has adopted a policy of recruiting locals by imposing high levies for the companies hiring foreign workers and by preventing foreigners from taking up jobs in 12 sectors.
Bangladesh embassy officials in Riyadh said the measures came as part of economic and labour reform measures to create more jobs for the locals.
“Saudi authorities are enforcing immigration laws in a more stringent way,” Golam Moshi, Bangladesh ambassador to the Kingdom, recently told this correspondent.
Recruiting agents said a good number of Bangladeshis went to Saudi Arabia with so-called free visas, which means the companies arranged visas for them, but not jobs and the migrants can work independently.
“This practice is illegal. That’s the reason why people with iqamas are being deported,” said Abdul Alim, a recruiting agent.
(Justnews/ys/2010hr)
