Arifur Rahman Rabbi
Taslima Khanam from Barisal had been struggling for 15 years with no contact with her husband. She went to Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh about four years ago to work as a domestic help, leaving her 12-year-old son with his grandmother.
She recently came home on a three-month-vacation after two years. After her vacation ended, Taslima was to leave Dhaka on a flight of Saudi Airlines scheduled to leave in the early hours of April 18, but it was suddenly cancelled. Now she does not know what to do.
“I reached Dhaka airport from Barisal spending around Tk 15,000 due to the strict lockdown. But my flight was cancelled,” she said.
She waited until around 2:00am at the airport when someone told her to go to Karwan Bazar’s Saudi Airlines office.
“That’s why I’ve come here to talk to the Saudi Airlines officials, but I still couldn’t get a chance to talk to them,” she said.
“We work hard for earning and sending money home. But we don’t get respect anywhere, neither in the country, nor abroad.”
Hundreds of other Saudi-bound people, like Taslima, were waiting to go to their workplace on a special flight amid the ongoing ‘strict’ lockdown in Bangladesh. Many of them are at risk of losing their jobs as their visas would expire in a few days.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government enforced a ‘strict’ lockdown across the country from April 14 to April 21 and the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh suspended all international flights to and from Bangladesh during this period.
Because of the week-long ban, around 20,000 to 25,000 expatriate workers were in uncertainty about reaching their workplaces. Later, however, the government decided to operate special flights to five countries including Saudi Arabia.
But the government’s move to send back expatriates to their workplaces stumbled on the first day on Saturday as half of the scheduled flights were cancelled.
As a result, expatriates gathered at the office of Saudi Airlines at Karwan Bazar for tickets on Sunday morning. Chaos broke out in front of the office over Saudi expatriates over cancelled flight tickets.
Ruhul Amin from Khulna has been living in Saudi’s Riyadh for around 16 years as the supervisor at a company. Mohammad Sohel from Narayanganj, on the other hand, works as a cleaner at the American Embassy in Riyadh. Their visas will expire respectively on April 26 and 22.
Their flights were scheduled to fly on April 21 and 20 respectively. But they said that the airlines authority asked them to reschedule or reconfirm their tickets for a date between April 14 and April 21. So, they had to come here.
They said: “We are all here as we are facing a crisis. We didn’t come here to beg. We went to Saudi Arabia with our own money. We’ll go again on our own expense.”
“But some people at the Saudi Airlines office are misbehaving with us. They are not even treating us like humans. Police beat us up yesterday. We’ve been humiliated.”
Abdur Rajjak, a staff member at a restaurant in Saudi’s Medina, said, “We were not deceived by the Saudi people. We’re being deceived by the travel agencies of our country. Visas are issued in Saudi for Tk 60,000 to Tk 70,000. But we have to buy them for Tk 4 to Tk 8 lakh.”
“Indians go to Saudi for Tk 40,000 to Tk 50,000. They get a salary of 750 riyals and we get only 250 riyals. There is very little surveillance by our government here,” he said.
“No one visits us. There is no one to monitor whether the companies pay us or not, or if they torture us. I haven't seen anyone asking about our livelihood in my 16-year career. But people from Syria, Pakistan or India ask how their people are doing abroad and whether they’re getting salary properly. They monitor the situations and conduct surveys,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mosharof Hossain from Faridpur works as a driver and salesperson in Riyadh for 16 years. He has a flight schedule to Riyadh on early April 20 with Biman Bangladesh Airlines. They say it is still on schedule.
Mosharof is the only earning member of his family. In addition to his wife and children, he has to look after his sisters as well.
But even after doing so much and sending remittance back home, he or his family could not get any benefits as an expatriate worker, he said.
Mosharof and Rajjak said Probashi Kallyan Bank is supposed to look after them by giving loans when needed, but there were a lot of hassle in getting a loan from there. Some of their family members and neighbours tried to get loan from there but failed.
Some others said they make important contributions to the country's economy. The remittance they send is helping to grow the reserve of the country. But they are the most neglected group in this country.
They are not getting the respect or recognition they deserve. Everyone treats them as labourers, according to these workers.
“If the officials of our country had increased their attention and monitoring in this sector, we’d not have suffered so much. We could get a decent salary and play a greater role in the country's economy. Our image would be bright abroad and at home,” they said.
