Deported Bangladeshis Reveal The Bangladeshi Mp’s Web Of Deceit

With eyes full of hope, a group of Bangladeshis reached Kuwait about two years ago. They made it to the oil-rich Gulf country after spending everything they had.

Some of them took loans from relatives and neighbours while some sold the only piece of their ancestral land. They paid hefty sums to a Bangladeshi manpower agency, owned by Laxmipur lawmaker Mohammad Shahid Islam, to pursue their dream of making a fortune on foreign soil.

But soon after they landed at the Kuwait International Airport, they were left in total dismay. They found they would not be getting the wages they were promised in Bangladesh. Besides, they would have to work many extra hours every day. Having no other option, they decided not to raise any objection.

But their struggle was not over yet. They lost their jobs after a few months and then started working on extremely low wages to survive.

Many of them were working as day labourers at the very airport they landed two years ago hoping to change their days. After the pandemic struck suspending flight operations, they again became jobless.

Their employers later took them to an area in the desert, where they were hiding when MP Shahid, also known as Kazi Papul, got arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department of Kuwait on charges of human trafficking and money laundering last week.

Twelve of the Bangladeshis were nabbed by the Kuwaiti police. Later, they were asked to give deposition in an investigation against Shahid, with promises that they would be compensated and sent back home.

They assisted the police and were deported subsequently. They came back almost empty-handed. The Daily Star spoke to four such returnees yesterday and learnt how they were deceived all along.

They said the Kuwaiti authorities had promised them of full compensation, but they were handed only 150 Kuwaiti Dinars before they boarded a flight that reached Dhaka yesterday morning.

Abdul Alim is one of them.

The 43-year old man from Noagaon reached Kuwait after paying around Tk 7.5 lakh to Shahid’s agency, housed in a building in the capital’s Fakirapool area, he said.

“It was a work visa for the job of a cleaner. I was told that my job would have an eight-hour shift and I would be paid 140 dinars a month,” Alim, a father of two, told this correspondent over phone.

He said when he landed, he found his shift would be 16 hours a day and his monthly salary 100 Kuwaiti dinars.

“From the factory where I worked, I was sent to the airport to work as a day labourer.” There, Alim was allowed to do odd jobs but in exchange he had to pay 8 dinars every day to Shahid’s men, he alleged. Two men named Aman and Mahbub would collect the money from him.

Once the coronavirus-driven lockdown began, Alim was sent to a building, owned by the company, in Abbasid area of Kuwait. After a few days, he was sent to a desert camp, belonging to the company.

“Around 9:30pm on Monday, Kuwaiti CID police raided the camp and took us to the CID office. I found 11 others there. We were kept there for five to six days,” Alim recalled.

It was at the CID building where they saw Shahid and his associate Rashed. The CID officials told them that their company was illegal and that their stay in Kuwait was also illegal.

“At the CID office, the officials asked how much we had given to Shahid, what we were doing and how much we were paying Shahid. We told them everything and then the official said they would give us the money we spent and send us back.”

But then all of a sudden on Saturday night they took the 12 people back to collect their belongings and took them to the airport on Monday night.

“A CID policeman and some people of the company were at the airport. They gave each of us 150 dinars and said the rest would be paid later,” he said. Alim said he had lost everything and demanded Shahid’s punishment. He said he wanted proper compensations.

Similar is the case of Shah Alam. Hailing from Mallick Bari area of Mymensingh, the 29-year-old went to Kuwait on work visa through the company that sent Alim. He also had to spend Tk 7.5 lakh. Alam was told that he would get a cleaner’s job there and earn 150 dinars a month.

“But I did not get the job. The company arranged food and accommodation for us for two months and then sent me to an airport. I worked there as a porter and I had to give 10 dinars a day to the men of Shahid for managing the job at the airport,” he said.

He alleged that there had been a nexus between CID officials and the men of Shahid. “They all fooled us. We have lost everything.”

Mohammad Sohag Mia, another deportee, shared a similar story.

According to a report published in Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai on Sunday,  certain Kuwaiti quarters within the government were involved in residency trade which paved the entry of Bangladeshi workers to the Arab country in exchange for money.

Papul (Shahid) and a Kuwaiti citizen co-own a big recruitment company named Marafie Kuwaitia. He is accused of charging each foreign worker, mostly Bangladeshi ones, up to 3,000 dinars in exchange for going to Kuwait. The workers also paid huge sums to the company for renewing their residency every year, said the report.

Following a complaint filed on February 16, the Anti-Corruption Commission of Bangladesh began an enquiry into an allegation that Shahid amassed Tk 1,400 crore by trafficking people to Kuwait and laundered the money to different countries.

Also in February, Kuwaiti media reported that three Bangladeshis were operating a human trafficking racket in the Middle Eastern country. On February 12, a report in the Arab Times said one of the three was a “member of parliament in Bangladesh”.

According to the report, the trio “occupied sensitive positions” in three major companies that brought over 20,000 Bangladeshi workers to Kuwait in exchange for an amount believed to be more than Tk 1,391.6 crore.

 

SOURCE : TIMESKUWAIT

Comments Post Comment

Leave a Comment

Submit