A recent FE report said innocent Bangladeshi 'newly-recruited' workers were cheated by a section of dishonest recruiting agencies into believing that they would land in good jobs in Iran. The jobs would change their lives for the better. But they were held hostage there and confined in a big room from where they were forced to make telephone calls, while crying, to their dear ones at home to pay ransom money. Their moans made their near and dear ones nervous enough to arrange ransom money by selling even landed property. Believe it or not, 6,000 to 7,000 such Bangladeshi workers, victims of such fraud, are still waiting in Iran to be repatriated home. This is certainly a new kind of criminal act resorted to by a section of people who pose as manpower exporters but are, in reality, criminals.
Hostage-taking of Bangladeshi migrant workers by their fellow countrymen in foreign soil for ransom money is a serious crime. Manpower-importing countries will henceforth think twice before employing workers from Bangladesh because of such incidents as these happened in Iran. The ill-fated workers, nearly 2,000 in number, had to pay an aggregate amount of Tk 1.20 billion as ransom for getting themselves freed from the clutches of abductors and for returning home badly bruised.
Plight of the cheated Bangladeshi workers abroad is naturally highlighted in the media of the countries they are stranded in. The host nation is sure to form a very bad impression about the country and its people. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) earlier imposed a ban on manpower import from Bangladesh as it complained that some of the workers from Bangladesh had ignored its laws and resorted to activities creating law and order situation there.
Another report spoke about repatriation of 20 Bangladeshis who were lured to Tanzania for jobs in South Africa and abandoned at the Tanzanian border after their passports were snatched from them. They were arrested by the Tanzanian police and left to languish in jail for 11 months. This is a pathetic example of the vile modus operandi of some dishonest manpower agents in Bangladesh. Alongside the hardship of the workers, their pathetic state of living and deprivation of many aspirants have also come to public attention.
The report focussed on a particular cheated worker who was stranded at the Tanzanian border because of the machinations and deceitful activities of a fake manpower agent who took Tk.0.6 million from him. It is more than pathetic. In the past years, many people seeking jobs in Malaysia were cheated in the same manner, as evidenced by the fact that about 2,67,000 workers were sent there illegally. Lured by the promise of job offers, big money and better future thousands of Bangladeshis have thus fallen victim to unscrupulous brokers and fake manpower agents. Many of these migrant workers have perished while crossing the rough seas and horrid desert lands while others have seen their dreams shattered by the cruel hand of fate.
There is no denying that increased remittance inflows from the overseas workers' wage-earnings have largely contributed to maintaining a steady level of foreign exchange reserve of Bangladesh. But manpower export has, of late, shrunk to a disconcertingly low level, according to the latest available data. Hostage-taking has now been added to the list of crimes some of the Bangladeshis have resorted to, even on foreign soil. This needs to be addressed sternly by the government.
It is not really understandable how such thousands of to-be-cheated workers could have an easy exit from the airports of the country. What did the immigration authorities really do? How could they allow these unfortunate workers to take flights to land in untold miseries abroad? What is the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) doing? No worker can have a safe passage from the airports without getting due BMET clearance. But how could the fraudulent agencies manage the immigration people to get the workers on board the planes dodging past tough verification? This has to be investigated into. It is time to bust the unholy nexus among the vested interests, before it is too late. Bangladesh cannot simply afford to lose its manpower market abroad at a time when the country is overburdened with the problem of unemployment and under-employment of its bulging young population.
A high-powered team of the Criminal Investigation Department is reported to be in Iran now to probe the incidents of abduction and hostage-taking. This move is welcome. What is most needed now is close coordination among concerned ministries in framing strict rules and regulations as well as for their proper enforcement.
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Roping in hostage-takers abroad
Rahman Jahangir | Published: May 17, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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