Dr. Abdul Momen

When Bangladesh was celebrating the May Dibosh and the Bangladeshi internet websites were exuberant on a misleading report captioned "Raise Your Head, Bangladesh" which stated that ‘at the call of Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman, the Bangladeshi expatriates remitted $1,500 million in a week that jumped the nation’s Foreign Exchange Reserve (FOREX) from a dismal $100 million to $1,600 million’, at that ephemerid time, a group of nearly 200 unemployed, unnourished, wretched expatriate Bangladeshi laborers walked 30 kilometer in 42C to reach to the Batha Legal Court to submit a complaint against their employer, the Oyon Al-Hejaj Maintenance and Cleaning Company, Riyadh. Unfortunately, the Saudi police who are not used to such big crowd removed them quickly saying bar-ra bar-ra..or get out, get out. They came back to their company’s headquarters near the Kuwait Square, Malaz without submitting any legal complaint. Such situation is not new…it is more or less a normal yearly phenomenon!

When Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh was contacted, as usual, they have no knowledge of the incident. Since the sufferers could not submit any legal complaint, their problem, therefore, legally does not exist. The only other evidence is the physical presence of this group of unemployed youths--- without job, without salary, without proper accommodation and without enough food. They were asked by the Labor Court to report on the following Saturday [May 4] and therefore, they were dispersed by its management to remote areas. With a view to destroy such evidence and to make them unable to report on time, the company’s labor supervisor, a very smart Bangladeshi

Bangladeshi labor at the Saudi Labor Court, Riyadh

Photo courtesy, Al-Jazira , May 2, 2002

from Comilla, Mr. Harun-ur-Rashid, did wonders….he moved each of these 200 unemployed youths to nearly 100 mosques away from the city. They were given SR50 per head to go to these mosques to stay away from the villa knowing fully well that they are not welcome there. Why did he do that? First, he wants to destroy all evidence, second, he don’t want them to report to the labor office again and third, he don’t want any reporter to report that nearly 200 Bangladeshi expatriates living in a company Villa without job or food. Last year, he had to arrange jobs and accommodation for nearly 320 such laborers once their story was reported in the local press, namely the Arab News and the Saudi Gazette. A number of Bangladeshi dailies also reported that story in Dhaka as well.

The Oyon Al-Hejaj Maintenance and Cleaning Company of Saudi Arabia recruits hundreds of Bangladeshi laborers each year, legally and illegally. They supply these laborers to the local mosques, offices, farms, companies and municipalities. When they recruit them from Bangladesh, they assure each of them some fixed monthly salary and a regular job as per the Saudi Labor law. However, once they arrive here, the Company puts them on mercy… they are paid a salary only when some other local company or office recruits them. If they are not recruited, then they do not get any payment for months [reportedly, around 25%-30% Bangladeshi laborers in Saudi Arabia are in such situation of disguise unemployment]. Then they are at the mercy of ‘illegal work’. They go out to fetch job either to wash cars, sell vegetables, or other odd jobs whichever is available. Selling vegetables or washing cars are illegal for them as per Saudi law. This is because they are recruited from abroad only as ‘cleaners’. Their employer, the Oyon Al-Hejaj Company, as per Saudi law, is supposed to pay them as long as they are here in the Kingdom. Unfortunately, their Company repeatedly ignores such laws. Firstly, because the poor laborers cannot lodge complaints against them either due to pressure from the Company or owing to share ignorance. Secondly, the Bangladesh Embassy lacks sensitivity, resource and will power to monitor the recruiting agencies. Neither they have any Special Cell to entertain complaints from its nationals. Third, local law enforcing agencies do not rush to help unless there is a legal complain pending in the Labor Court or a request from the Embassy. Therefore, the Oyon Al-Hejaj Company does not have to be serious to comply the local laws. Mr. Rashid claims that the Bangladesh Embassy knows everything about them and therefore, if any one bothers them, he warns, he or they would be deported forthwith.

His warnings are not empty. Last year, when the Oyon Al-Hejaj Company’s misdeeds and hacking of Saudi laws were reported to the Bangladesh Embassy, Bangladesh Ambassador Mahbub Alam got mad at it and he singled out the complainant and never allowed him to visit the Embassy premises again. He is virtually a person non-grata. A few Manpower agents also lodged false cases against the complainant to the Saudi government for his deportation and threats were made against his life. The reason was obvious…the manpower agencies are very rich and powerful. Their God Fathers are even more powerful and mighty. They make millions without paying taxes and many senior decision makers are on their pay roll. They operate like Mafia and drug lords. However, since the matter was published in the local dailies, the Saudi government took stern action and the Oyon Al-Hejaj Company had to pay due wages to its 320 Bangladeshi deprived employees and they were provided with jobs and decent accommodation overnight.

Three years ago, the Bangladesh Embassy rejected 250 Visas of the Oyon Al-Hejaj Company to bring labor from Bangladesh because of its deceit and ill treatment. Reportedly, they bribed some big guys and thus cleared their name, say an Embassy staff. More importantly, none of the Recruiting Agencies have been black listed by the Bangladesh government yet in spite of their known evil tract records, says the Labor Wing of the Embassy. In this trade, only a few bad companies bring bad name to the entire manpower industry and of course, to the governments mostly because of corrupt government officials, say Mahfuzur

Mr. Atiqul Islam is talking to Labor Officials while others are waiting outside. Photo: Al-Jazira, May 2

Rahman, a manpower businessman. However, Dr. Arifur Rahman, a top businessman in this industry says, a large number of manpower businessmen try to profit through deceit as the government policies are weak and ineffective.

On May 1, 2002, among this said group of 200 unemployed and left-out Bangladeshi expatriates, Atiqul Islam (age 26) of Comilla stated that he landed in the Kingdom on March 8, 2002 and since then he is basically without job or accommodation. He paid Tk1,50,000 (one lakh fifty thousand) to the Anika Travels, Dhaka through Mr. Ershad Ullah of Bengal Agency, Fakirapool, Dhaka. He was assured of a full time job of SR450 per month for three years but he finds that those who are employed, they get only SR350/ month out of which the employer deducts SR 50 a month as Iqama fee which itself is illegal as per Saudi Law. Moreover, none is employed for 36 months straight…only few months in a year at the sweet will of Mr. Harun-ur-Rashid. Whoever makes noise about the non-fulfillment of the contract, the Company deports them back to Bangladesh and brings a fresh group against those labor permits. Each permit is now being sold reportedly at SR6,000 to SR7,000. According to Atiqul Islam, nearly 470 Bangladeshi laborers are currently without jobs in his company. Another couple of hundreds is about to join them soon from Dhaka…their papers are being processed by the Anika and other travel agencies in Dhaka. If they are not stopped, they will face similar fate of frustration, deprivation, depravation and misery, he added.

Since the Bangladesh government is bent upon sending more and more labor abroad to have more foreign exchanges, will there be any one to look at the plight of the Bangladeshi laborers abroad? Will the newly created Division of Expatriate Nationals headed by a State Minister ever dig into the misery of these home remittance earners of Bangladesh? Will there be any one, anyone to help mitigate their recurrent sufferings? Remember, ‘in this game of manpower business, very often the individual labor loses all that he has; money, health, moral strength, motivation, family, respect for life and develop disgust for the host as well the home government. The government loses its goodwill while the recruiters make enormous profits by exploiting the poor labor’.