30 BD workers flee from safe camp of Iraq mission

Some 30 out of 51 Bangladeshi migrant workers Wednesday fled from the safe camp of Bangladesh mission in Iraq, where they were kept for repatriation.
Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, minister for the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry (EWOEM), said this at a press briefing Thursday, after a meeting with the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) representatives.
He said following high migration cost the workers are not interested to return home from Iraq. So they ran away from the safe camp.
The minister said earlier 51 Bangladeshi workers were brought to the safe camp in Bangladesh Embassy in Iraq from Mosul, following siege of the city by a group of alleged Sunni rebels.
The government imposed a restriction on manpower export to Iraq on July 14 due to fresh political unrest in the war-torn country. The restriction will continue until improvement of political situation there.
The government will bring back the workers, who are at the safe home now, as early as possible, the minister told the journalists at the press briefing.    
He said despite uncertainty the migrants are not interested to return home, as they are penniless now after spending a large amount of money as migration cost.
He also said the government requested the Iraqi employers to help Bangladeshi workers to take shelter in safe places, if any volatile situation arises in their respective workplaces.
Nearly 25,000 Bangladeshi migrants are now working in Iraq. Of them, some 200 are in Mosul and Tikrit, the cities that are most vulnerable amid political conflict.  
EWOEM secretary Khondaker Showkat Hossain, Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) director general Begum Shamsun Nahar, and BAIRA president Mohammad Abul Bashar, senior vice president Ali Haider Chowdhury and secretary general Monsur Ahmed Kalam, among others, were present at the press briefing.