A section of manpower recruiters are allegedly sending Bangladeshi workers to Algeria promising them jobs in European countries.
They had sent at least 56 workers from different districts including Munshiganj, Madaripur, Bogura and Dinajpur since February this year.
The recruiters charged Tk 300,000 from each of the workers, those who returned home said. Nine of them returned home recently.
Four of them are staying in Morocco as recruiters promised to send them to Spain.
The rest of them are staying in Algeria while some of them have escaped from their workplace.
About 22 Bangladeshi nationals recently sought assistance to save their lives and
described their inhuman condition through a video message from Algeria.
Md Faruque, who returned from the North African country, said two recruiting agencies had sent 56 Bangladeshi workers to Algeria in February last.
They promised good jobs and wages. They also told the workers that if they did not feel comfortable in Algeria, they could go to Spain.
But they did not get wages and the minimum working environment there. Rather they were tortured by agents, he said.
Another returnee Md Jashim from Munshiganj told the FE correspondent that he came back from Algeria in late September after serving one and a half months' jail term.
The manpower agent assured him of a job in Algeria in the construction sector with a monthly wage of Tk 40,000. He was told that after the stay there for some days he could go to Spain through their agent.
"We did not get anything but faced a lot of sufferings and harassment," Mr Jashim said. He was engaged by a construction firm named China Railway. He was paid only Tk 30,000 after two months' work.
"When I demanded wage, the agent stopped providing food and asked me for money from my family to buy air ticket to send me home," he said.
The recruiter took Tk 305,300 as the migration cost including fingerprint, he added. Shariful Islam, programme head of Brac Migration, said seven families of the stranded workers in Algeria sought assistance from Brac to bring them home.
Accordingly, they applied formally to the Wage Earners' Welfare Board to ensure their safe return home, he said.
Mr Islam said it is a matter of grave concern as they think the recruiters had an intention to send the workers to Europe via Algeria. The government should take necessary action.
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