MUSCAT: Dreams of 564 Bangladeshi migrant workers for a better living were shattered when they were stopped on their way to work at the gates of Muscat airport expansion project site Sunday morning (May 24).

The workers were arrested and jailed on charges of accepting to do jobs contrary to what is mentioned on their labour card. They will be deported and will face a lifetime ban.

“After completing the procedures they will be deported,” a local media in Oman quoted an official at the ministry of manpower as saying.

An official from the Bangladesh embassy in Muscat said that the Bangladeshi workers are sheltered in Samail jail and after the procedures are completed, they will be forced to leave the country.

Around 1,000 migrant workers, mainly from the Indian sub-continent, were arrested on Sunday morning from the buses in which they were transported to the work site.

The workers were hired on daily basis payment by an unlicensed sub-contracting company in Muscat for the airport expansion project work.

Even though the workers had a valid labour card, they were arrested as they had agreed to do jobs contrary to what is mentioned in their labour card.

The arrested unskilled and semi-skilled migrant workers presumed that if they have a valid labour card they could do any job.

“We were told that ours is a free visa, which permits us to work anywhere. But after coming here we realized that there is nothing like called free visa,” Sirajul Islam, a Bangladeshi migrant worker, said.

He further said: “We have to take risk because, we paid around Tk 300,000 back home for the visa and cannot sit idle here without earning money.”

A migrant worker under the so called free visa system can work anywhere in Oman. He doesn’t have to work under his sponsor but has to pay a minimal amount every month as fee for allowing him to work outside.

According to Article 18 of Oman Labour Law, the employer shall not let any non-Omani worker authorized to work for him, to work with any other employer.

“Where have we wronged. Why should we be punished? The agent in Dhaka loots us. Here also we are looted daily by our own countrymen who act as middlemen in arranging jobs for us. Let them. The Al Mighty won’t forgive them. We came here by pledging and selling off everything we had to support our family,” Siraj added.

The workers hired get 650 Baiza per hour. To be hired they wake up around 4am in the morning and wait for the agents at the collection centre.

“We manage to earn around OMR150 per month. But more than OMR80 goes out as expenses for rent, food, phone cards and the monthly payment for the sponsor. How much is left. How can we survive? How can we send a decent amount back home? How can we repay our loan? Everything is in a mess,” Shamsudin, another Bangladeshi worker said.

The workers’ hourly payment is around OMR1. But the 50 per cent is taken by the agent who arranges the job.

“Many get cheated while being recruited to foreign jobs. Creation of awareness is the only solution for this. Either government agencies or the non-governmental agencies who are involved in the betterment of migrant workers should chalk out plans to create pre-departure awareness for migrant workers,” Mohammed Sanaullah, a Bangladeshi social worker in Oman, said.

“The Bangla government should take steps to protect the migrant workers like many other migrant sending countries have adopted. More has to be done,” Sanaullah added.

Similar raids are held periodically in Oman by the government agencies to streamline the labour market.

More than 800 hundred workers were arrested last April while other 650 workers were deported on different charges, according to figures from the Ministry of Manpower.

At present the government has announced a three-month amnesty, through which the undocumented and overstaying migrant workers could go back to their home country without facing any legal actions and paying any penalties.

The amnesty which began on May 3 will last till July 31.

Around 15,000 undocumented and overstaying workers have registered with the Bangladesh embassy in Oman seeking amnesty, an official at the embassy had said.

There are around 5.5 million Bangladeshi workers, the second largest migrant community following Indians, in Oman.

BDST: 1028 HRS, MAY 29, 2015
SR