14 workers bound for Dhaka in first batch

Following the UAE President's pardon, 14 Bangladeshi expatriate workers, who took to the streets in the United Arab Emirates supporting the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement in Bangladesh and were jailed there, were scheduled to return home on Saturday night.

They are among the 57 workers pardoned on Tuesday by UAE's President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The workers were scheduled to arrive at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka and the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram by Saturday night, according to sources.

On July 19, UAE's law enforcers arrested the workers for participating in the protest supporting the anti-quota movement of Bangladesh.

A total of 53 people were sentenced to 10 years in jail, three were sentenced to life-imprisonment, while one was sentenced to 11 years in prison due to the protests in different places in the UAE, according to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment of Bangladesh.

Shofiqur Rahman Choudhury, the former state minister of the ministry earlier announced that they would not take any step for the jailed workers in the UAE as it is a matter of their country.

He also said that the expatriates had damaged the image of Bangladesh abroad as such a movement violates the law.

[email protected]