The government has completed procedures for bringing back several hundred Bangladeshi workers who have been serving different terms of imprisonment in Dubai prisons for committing crimes in that country.
Sources said the ministry of home affairs (MoHA) will start the process of bringing them back when the Dubai informs the ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA) of their readiness to sit in talks for setting the modalities.
They said in respect of the process of bringing back the prisoners, the MoHA has already completed ratification as per the agreement signed in this regard during the Prime Minister's visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December last year.
The ministry has also informed the UAE government of completing the ratification process and expressed the government's willingness to start finalising the modalities to bring back the prisoners.
Since the agreement signed, Bangladesh made effort to get approval from the cabinet after vetting from the ministry of law.
"This effort has been made to ensure the Dubai government that the Bangladesh government has addressed the problems being faced by migrant workers and wants the convicted migrant workers to return home," said an official.
He said efforts have also been made to restore the country's confidence on employing Bangladeshi workers again which remained almost suspended on the issue of returning convicted workers from Dubai jails.
The UAE still needs a huge number of foreign workers for its various sectors.
Sources said after getting confirmation from Dubai, the home ministries of both the countries will sit to review the cases one by one and then start the repatriation process.
According to an estimate, about 1,000 Bangladeshi workers have been serving different terms of imprisonment including death sentence for committing minor to serious crimes.
Home ministry officials said all the convicted prisoners will not come within the purview of the agreement signed between the two countries. They said minor imprisonment or death penalty cases will not be taken into account for repatriation.
'In most cases, long-term imprisonment will be taken into consideration to bring them back. And they have to complete their jail term in Bangladeshi jails. But one-year imprisonment or less are unlikely to come within the purview of the agreement," said another home ministry official.
In case of death penalty, amnesty issue has to be raised from the country where conviction was awarded, he said, adding that there are few cases of death penalty for Bangladeshi workers
Sources in foreign and home ministries said Bangladesh has several agreements with a number of migrant worker receiving countries for repatriation, but none of these has started the repatriation process. At present, the ministry of home is working to bring back Bangladeshi prisoners from India, but the process has long continued to fix the modalities and meet different criteria.
Nearly 100,000 Bangladeshi workers went to the UAE for job till 2015, but the Dubai government informed the Bangladesh government that the trend in getting involved with criminal activities by the Bangladeshi workers is increasing.
The Dubai government alleged that Bangladeshi workers have been engaged in staging protest and attacking each other often on pretty matter, although migrant workers often allege harassment and non-payment of wages against employers.
Expatriate welfare ministry officials said whatever the situation is now, bringing back convicted Bangladeshi workers will make other workers aware of avoiding unwanted situation.
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