From Dhaka to Baghdad in search of a living wage
Thursday, 16 April 2009
BAGHDAD, Apr 15 (AFP): Abul al-Hossein, fresh off a plane from Dhaka via Dubai, says he can drive cars, buses and trucks -- and he wants to do so in Iraq.
The 39-year-old Bangladeshi does not speak a word of Arabic however, making it highly unlikely he will find any such work in Baghdad.
Still when Hossein, a husband and father of three, is given the bad news he is quick to unveil Plan B -- he has also worked as a cook, specialising in Indian cuisine. He could do this instead.
"My family, my children are in desperate need of money," he says, sitting on a dust-caked sofa in the lobby of an eight-dollar-a-night hotel that is his temporary home.
"Even my wife said 'try and find a job in another country -- go to Iraq'. So I did."
It seems a surprising choice. According to the United Nations, unemployment is running at 18 percent in Iraq -- with males aged between 15 and 29 years accounting for 57 percent of that figure.
Working in Iraq also comes at a price. Labourers from the Philippines, India, Nepal, Pakistan and China were among those beheaded or abducted by insurgents in the years of chaos that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.
Security has since improved, but Iraq remains a dangerous country, with car bombings and suicide attacks part of daily life.
And even in war-ravaged Baghdad, a particularly bleak ambience prevails on Sadoun Street, where Hossein's hotel is located.
Crumbling pavements adjoin potholed roads. Sandbrick houses with scarred walls barely stand upright. Signs of economic resurgence are hard to find.
But in the bright sunshine of a spring day, Hossein and several of his countrymen staying at the Al Manar ("Lighthouse" in Arabic) Tourist Hotel have high hopes Baghdad will offer hard cash and prospects for a better life.
Massoud Monir, 32, was a foreman in charge of 20 workers at a ceramics factory in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, but still he could not earn enough to make ends meet.
Today, he works at a hotel in Baghdad.
"In Bangladesh it is so difficult to make a living, to get money, to get food," says Monir, who arrived here a month ago. "So I decided to come to Baghdad."
-- 'Not afraid of anything' --
Food prices nearly doubled in Bangladesh in 2008 after grain production was devastated by major flooding and a catastrophic cyclone the previous year -- 40 percent of the country's 160 million population earn less than a dollar a day.
Bangladeshis seeking to escape poverty back home are prepared to do the jobs that Iraqis do not want. Safety does not appear to be their top concern.
"I will work at any job," Hossein says. "I'm not afraid of anything."
And for local businessmen eager to cut costs, particularly those running restaurants and shops, they are a godsend.
"The Bangladeshi guys cost less and cause me fewer problems," says Raghid Abdul Razaq, who employs more than 100 people, predominantly Iraqis, at a fairground in Zawra Park in central Baghdad.
Razaq, now searching for three more Bangladeshis to clean his premises, is also frank about the financial benefits of imported labour.
"I can pay about 100 to 120 dollars a worker, whereas an Iraqi would want 400 to 450 dollars," he says.
Visa problems are common, however. The labour ministry says many Bangladeshis -- who are employed throughout the Middle East as cheap labour -- are working in Iraq illegally.
In some cases, workers who previously worked for coalition forces later join a labour black market when their contracts run out, the government says.
Others, like Belal Uddin Alan, now work as recruitment agents.
The 39-year-old Bangladeshi does not speak a word of Arabic however, making it highly unlikely he will find any such work in Baghdad.
Still when Hossein, a husband and father of three, is given the bad news he is quick to unveil Plan B -- he has also worked as a cook, specialising in Indian cuisine. He could do this instead.
"My family, my children are in desperate need of money," he says, sitting on a dust-caked sofa in the lobby of an eight-dollar-a-night hotel that is his temporary home.
"Even my wife said 'try and find a job in another country -- go to Iraq'. So I did."
It seems a surprising choice. According to the United Nations, unemployment is running at 18 percent in Iraq -- with males aged between 15 and 29 years accounting for 57 percent of that figure.
Working in Iraq also comes at a price. Labourers from the Philippines, India, Nepal, Pakistan and China were among those beheaded or abducted by insurgents in the years of chaos that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.
Security has since improved, but Iraq remains a dangerous country, with car bombings and suicide attacks part of daily life.
And even in war-ravaged Baghdad, a particularly bleak ambience prevails on Sadoun Street, where Hossein's hotel is located.
Crumbling pavements adjoin potholed roads. Sandbrick houses with scarred walls barely stand upright. Signs of economic resurgence are hard to find.
But in the bright sunshine of a spring day, Hossein and several of his countrymen staying at the Al Manar ("Lighthouse" in Arabic) Tourist Hotel have high hopes Baghdad will offer hard cash and prospects for a better life.
Massoud Monir, 32, was a foreman in charge of 20 workers at a ceramics factory in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, but still he could not earn enough to make ends meet.
Today, he works at a hotel in Baghdad.
"In Bangladesh it is so difficult to make a living, to get money, to get food," says Monir, who arrived here a month ago. "So I decided to come to Baghdad."
-- 'Not afraid of anything' --
Food prices nearly doubled in Bangladesh in 2008 after grain production was devastated by major flooding and a catastrophic cyclone the previous year -- 40 percent of the country's 160 million population earn less than a dollar a day.
Bangladeshis seeking to escape poverty back home are prepared to do the jobs that Iraqis do not want. Safety does not appear to be their top concern.
"I will work at any job," Hossein says. "I'm not afraid of anything."
And for local businessmen eager to cut costs, particularly those running restaurants and shops, they are a godsend.
"The Bangladeshi guys cost less and cause me fewer problems," says Raghid Abdul Razaq, who employs more than 100 people, predominantly Iraqis, at a fairground in Zawra Park in central Baghdad.
Razaq, now searching for three more Bangladeshis to clean his premises, is also frank about the financial benefits of imported labour.
"I can pay about 100 to 120 dollars a worker, whereas an Iraqi would want 400 to 450 dollars," he says.
Visa problems are common, however. The labour ministry says many Bangladeshis -- who are employed throughout the Middle East as cheap labour -- are working in Iraq illegally.
In some cases, workers who previously worked for coalition forces later join a labour black market when their contracts run out, the government says.
Others, like Belal Uddin Alan, now work as recruitment agents.