DHAKA: A total of 932 Bangladeshi women workers, who faced various types of torture including the sexual one, returned home voluntarily from Saudi Arabia in last eight months from January. 

The women who took shelter in 'Safe Home' of Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh in different times were sent to the country.

Bangladeshi women are working as domestic workers in six countries including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Lebanon. Of these, after being tortured women are returning home from Saudi Arabia every month. After keeping them at Safe Home of embassy for a long time, the women were then sent to the country.

On Monday (September 9), the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare sources said that women workers are getting jobs abroad but not getting working environment. Many are being sexually abused at work place.

According to data obtained from the expatriate welfare desk at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, in the last eight months indicate that from January to August 31, a total of 25,293 workers returned to the country. There are 932 women workers. Most of them have returned from Saudi Arabia for various reasons, including torture.

According to the observation by the non-government aid agency Brac, about 2,000 women workers from Saudi Arabia returned to the country in the last one and a half years for various reasons including torture. We have provided assistance to all of them. 

In the last three and a half years, 8 to 9,000 women workers have returned to the country. Of these, 6 to 7,000 have returned from Saudi Arabia. From January to August this year, 900 women workers returned to the country. All of them have returned from Saudi Arabia, it added.

Every woman worker has complaint against their employers, especially those who worked as housemaids, but Bangladeshi government officials refused this complaint.

Around 2 lakh of housemaids went to Saudi Arabia from Bangladesh over the last 5 years.

The returnee women workers alleged that when many workers are taking shelter in Safe home after being tortured, many were sent to jail without any crime. The house owners handed over them to the police by false accusation without talking to the workers.

Rownak Jahan, secretary of the expatriates' welfare and overseas ministry, told Banglanews, "It is not possible to give exact figures of how many women have returned to the country so far. They return to the country for various reasons. The reason is not just torture. It is one of the reasons.”

According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) data, as of August 2019, the number of migrant women was 68,983. Saudi Arabia has the highest number of female workers. In the last eight months, 44,002 women workers have went to Saudi. Then 11,057 went to Jordan while 7,253 women in Oman. In Qatar, there are 2,338 while 1,587 in the United Arab Emirates. Then, 1,034 women workers have gone in Lebanon, in the past eight months.

BDST: 1116 HRS, Sep 11, 2019
RS/SMS