On February 2, 2022, Saudi expatriate domestic worker Fatema Akhtar (33) was supposed to return home to Singair in Manikganj. She did not return that day. When Fatema's phone was turned off, the relatives rushed to the local broker, Quddus's house in the neighbouring village to get information. Quddus asks relatives to wait for a few days.
Fatema crossed Saudi Arabia with the help of Quddus . After a few days when there was no news, the relatives rushed to Quddus again. This time he assures the relatives that Fatima is healthy, and promises to talk on the phone. Even after more than 1 week passed without getting any news, the relatives sat in the village arbitration with the local union council members. In that arbitration, Quddus was forced to tell the truth. He said that Fatema committed suicide on February 3. By then, 10 days of death have passed!
However, the family claims that Fatema’s death was by murder, not suicide.
When the local agent Quddus was contacted over the phone regarding the issue he claimed, "The Saudi representative of the recruiting agency took the ticket on February 3 and saw that Fatema had died. Later the door was broken and her body was found hanging". He denied torturing Fatema. He said, "Fatema was found hanging with a fan. The preliminary surathal report also found marks on the throat”.Meanwhile, when Fatema's house was investigated in Manikganj, her brother Shariful Islam said, "There was no ceiling fan in Fatema's house, she did not commit suicide, she was killed". Instead, Shariful requested the owner that Fatema was suffering in the heat due to the lack of a fan, and arranged to buy a charger table fan by deducting the salary. He said, "If there is no ceiling fan in my sister's room, then how can she commit suicide?"
Alleging that Fatema was tortured and not allowed to talk on her mobile phone, the relatives said, "She was beaten once and her fingers were broken, she could not work for a long time. We believe our sister is not the kind of person to commit suicide, we want a proper investigation and justice. We do not have the capacity to bring the dead body to the country, we request the government to bring the dead body of my sister to the country”.
Fatema's mother, Khodeja Khatun, also cried and told the same complaint, " They used to beat her and not let her talk on the mobile phone." As soon as she starts talking, she says - Mom, hang up, look how they are coming. I will call later….”. Khodeja Khatun requested "Bring my daughter, at least the grave should be in the land of the country".
June, 2022. By then 7 months have passed, Fatema's body is lying in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, Broker Quddus and the agency asked the relatives to sign a no-objection clearance to bring Fatema's body to the country without a post-mortem. But as the relatives did not agree, the body was stuck abroad for months after months . The relatives applied to the Expatriate Welfare Ministry. But due to lack of finance and coordination of the relevant departments of the government, the body does not return to the country.
However, Fatema went to Saudi Arabia through Option Recruiting Agency in Nayapaltan of the capital as a legal worker with the permission of Bangladesh Employment Bureau BMET. After moving to Saudi, the relatives alleged that although she was fine in the house of the first owner for two years, she was being tortured in the house of the new owner (Zuma Saeed Hadi Al Khatani).
Influenced by broker Quddus' words, Fatima went abroad in 2019. After investigation, it is known that Quddus provided staff to some agencies from that area of Manikganj as an agent of recruiting agencies. Basically, in her family, two daily labor brothers and elderly parents, garment worker Fatema Akhter went to Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic worker in November 2019 to relieve her family's financial problems. Both Fatima and her husband worked in a garment company. Influenced by broker Quddus, she decided to go abroad to change her fortunes. But, she had to return as a corpse.
When we went to Option Recruiting Agency in Nayapaltan of the capital to find out about this, they denied the torture of Fatema. Raihan Patwari, the manager of the recruiting agency, said, "There has never been a complaint about this in the agency. If there was any kind of problem, Agent Quddus would have informed us in advance. He or the passenger's family used to contact us."
He refused to bring the body home. He said, "If any worker, alive or dead, goes under the embassy, the embassy will take care of them. The responsibility of bringing the dead body to the country is the responsibility of the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare, not us. We have asked the relatives to lodge a complaint with BMET”.
If not tortured, why will Fatima commit suicide? In response to such questions from the family, Patwari and his colleagues claim that they may have committed suicide out of depression due to personal reasons or family problems. However, how did she died - they could not clearly tell if it is by hanging with a fan or in some other way, someone said that she hung with a fan and avoided the question!
Fatema's relatives went from door to door to bring the body to the country because they could not afford it. But the government offices did not show such sincerity. Fatema's family applied to the Wage Honors Welfare Board on April 5 to bring the body home. But when contacted to know why her body was not returned even after 3 months of the application, Welfare Board Joint Secretary, Director (Administration and Development) Musharrat Zebeen said, "There is no information about the application, there are many departments that work here, they can know. In that case I can look into the matter.
Musharrat Zebeen said, "When no one can, we bring the dead body to the country. In fact, it is not part of our main work to bring the bodies of expatriate workers to the country. We intervene only when the most painful or humanitarian aspect is taken into consideration, the corpse that has been lying for long, completely unattended. If not, the job of the welfare board is to do the welfare of the workers, which means it is not our job to bring dead bodies officially.
However, if there is any information in this case, she said to look into it. In this regard, Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Minister Imran Ahmed said, "Those who go abroad legally, the company brings their dead bodies to the country, so there is no problem, and those who go illegally, if there is any problem, the Wage Honors Welfare Board brings their dead bodies to the country. Through them, many bodies return to the country”.
Regarding the delay of 5-7 months, he said, "This delay is not for the ministry. The allegation of delay is not correct. There is a delay due to various issues including police clearance, body release. But when I get the documents, I send them to the welfare board."
Later, due to the presence of the media, the Kalyan Board started the operation to bring the body. August 12, 2022 Fatema's body returned to the country. But, without any kind of post-mortem or forensics.
She was buried in her own village in Manikganj without an autopsy as there is no provision in the country for such death.
According to the data of Expatriate Welfare Desk at Dhaka Airport, on an average 15-20 dead bodies return home from abroad every day. In 5 months from January to May 2022, the bodies of 1389 expatriate workers returned to the country. About 40,000 bodies have been returned since 2009. From 2015-2020, the bodies of 487 women returned to the country. Out of which 86 people died by suicide. Out of the 487 bodies of women who died in 11 countries, 198 bodies of women returned home from Saudi Arabia alone.
However, according to various sources, double the number of bodies returned to the country are buried locally in those countries. According to the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 435 bodies were sent to Bangladesh last year in 2021, but 847 bodies of Bangladeshi expatriate workers were buried locally in Saudi Arabia during the same period. Again, out of 435 bodies sent to the country, only 7 bodies were sent to the country with government funding, the remaining 428 bodies were sent with the employer's funding. As a result, most of the cost of the mortuary is borne by the employer. In 2022, 47 dead bodies were sent to Bangladesh in January alone, but 63 bodies were buried locally at the same time. The bodies of 47 people were sent at the expense of the employer.
It should be noted that the Wage Honors Welfare Board pays only 35 thousand rupees to the relatives for cremation. Apart from this, depending on the situation, each relative of the worker is paid 3 lakh taka.
Hajera Begum of Boalmara village of Raipur upazila of Narsingdi died just 14 days after going to Saudi Arabia. Hazera Begum's body returned to the country after almost 4 months. Relatives claim that she was also killed. The family applied to the Narsingdi District Employment Bureau to bring the body back to the country. Hajera Begum's relative is only Saudi expatriate uncle Harun Mia, who came home for a few days of vacation and got the news of Hajera Begum's death. When contacted, he said on the mobile phone, "After 1 day of reaching owner’s house in Saudi Arabia, I talked with Hajera. But since then the communication has been completely stopped, so I have to inquire on the phone in Saudi Arabia. Later, on July 24, when I called the Saudi owner, they said that Hazera had died 4-5 days ago.
Harun Miah said, "The owner of the house said that Hajera died after taking too much medicine due to headache. Again, when the Saudi workers called the recruiting company, they said that Hazera had died by hanging on the roof. As a result, the family has doubts about Hajera's death.
As Hajera Begum's husband did not provide for the family, she traveled to Saudi Arabia herself to work to raise her 3 small children on July 5, 2022. However, the family complains that they approached the recruiting agency Jabir International several times to bring Hajera's body to the country, but they did not take it into account.
However, on the question of whether Hajera Begum had any disease or illness before, her uncle Harun Mia said, "If there was any disease, then she would have become medically unfit. She could not go abroad. How can she have any disease in just 14 days? She was killed. The Saudi company says she died on the roof with the cable of the dish line hooked up to it, it's not possible. How ould someone hangs on the dish line and dies”!He said, "We want the agency to collect compensation and bring Hajera's body to the country." What happened to her, how she died will not be investigated by the police? We will sit with the body, and the agency will do business”.
Meanwhile, no one from the recruiting agency agreed to speak even though contacted. After about 4 months, the dead body of Hazera Begum returned to the country on November 11, 2022. But in the non-objection letter sent by the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the post-mortem demand of Hazera Begum was mentioned in the report, but no autopsy was conducted there.
According to immigration experts and human rights activists, the entire process from traveling abroad to returning home should be under transparent monitoring. But, there is no such activity active.
According to a research report last year by the UN women's network UNOMEN, mainly due to poverty and lack of employment opportunities, most women workers in Bangladesh migrate abroad to take care of children left by their husbands. Most of them went to work in Middle Eastern countries. These include countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar. Domestic workers are generally not covered by labour laws in the Persian Gulf countries where Bangladeshi women work. As a result, the employers of these countries control, torture, not paying proper wages, restricting movement, confiscating food and a series of inhumane work pressures on migrant domestic workers. As a result, there are more cases of torture of women domestic workers in these countries.
Research by the non-governmental development organization BRAC says that 98 percent of women migrate abroad because of extreme poverty, family instability, unemployment, divorce, or raising children and improving their economic conditions who are influenced by local brokers in various ways. Most of them have no formal education and without any vetting, fall into the fraud traps of brokers and become victims of abuse abroad.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) - an average of 1 lakh women workers go abroad for work every year. Among them, the largest number of women workers went abroad in 2017 - 1 lakh 21 thousand. As of September 2022, 85,700 women workers have gone. Among them, more than 55 thousand went to Saudi Arabia alone. Most of them went as domestic workers. Since 1991, the total number of women domestic workers has been more than 1 million. (Data Source: BMET)
According to the Foreign Employment and Migration Act, 2013, the Labour Welfare Wing is responsible for preparing the list of deceased workers, collecting information regarding the cause of death and burial and taking care of the matters of recovery of compensation from employers.Sub-section (3) of Section 29 of Chapter Seven of the Act states – “If any migrant worker is in danger due to the negligence or illegal activities of any recruitment agent, the Government may direct the concerned recruiting agent to bear the cost of bringing the migrant worker back to the country.”
In this regard, advocate and human rights activist Nigar Sultana said, if the employer does not bear the expenses, in the case of such problems, at whose expense, the body will be brought to the country, the immigration law has not been clarified. However, since the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare has a Welfare Board, they are supposed to do this. They usually bring the dead bodies to the country. Said, in these cases the government has responsibility. Even if it is not mentioned in the law, the government has the responsibility to bring back the citizens of the country. In that case, if the labour wings of the embassy of that country seriously consider the complaints of the workers, these problems would have reduced a lot, she said.
This human rights committee also complained that Bangladesh's labour wings abroad are not working properly. Even though the embassy has a safe house in case of such incidents or any torture, the embassy's activities are not seen much in cases or legal processes for compensation. But among other Asian countries, countries like Philippines, Nepal, Indonesia take these incidents seriously, they put pressure on the government of that country but not in our case.Namita Halder, a former member of the National Human Rights Commission, said, "It is the government's responsibility to bring back the bodies of all the workers, men and women, who go abroad. The body was brought home by the government at its own expense through the Wage Earners Welfare Board. When the embassy informed the ministry they took the initiative.
She thinks that this work is not neglected. She said that the delay is also due to some procedural problems. Namita Halder said – “What is hidden remains hidden, what comes to light is brought into the country legally”.
Basically, considering the financial crisis and religious point of view, the families do not show interest in autopsy in the country. Besides, they do not show interest in the legal process due to the long delay. And most of them are uneducated and do not even know the process to go through. As a result, their hope of getting justice ends by filing an application and complaint to the concerned
ministry or recruiting agency. As a result, the actual cause of death of expatriate workers who die by suicide remains unknown.
Director of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RAMRU), Marina Sultana, said, "The deaths may have been due to other causes but were put down as suicides. So we are only relying on reports from that side, but here (in the country) we have to do really big work.” In case of such death, this immigration expert urged for post-mortem investigation in the country. When asked whether it is necessary to conduct autopsies in the country of workers who died due to suicide or accidents, Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Minister Imran Ahmad said, "Even if the autopsies are conducted here, even if the crime is caught, who will prosecute the case?" Whether the case will be accepted here is also a matter of law, the police can say. But it depends on the situation. It is not possible for the government to go abroad to provide protection, it is not possible for the embassy to provide that protection there, it has to be done by the law enforcement forces of that country.
On March 24, 2019, Abiron Begum was killed at her landlord's house. After 51 days of his death, his family got to know the news of Abiron. Initially, her family was also told that Abiran had died in an accident. This was informed through agencies and embassies. Even then, the relatives said, his employer brutalised Abiran and even did not pay him any salary for two years.
Later, when a case was filed in Saudi Arabia, it was found that Abiran was killed. When the trial of the murder case began, the Criminal Court of Saudi Arabia announced the death sentence of the employer for the murder of Abiran on February 14, 2021. The co-accused were also sentenced. Abiran was tortured and killed after only 2 years.
Namita Halder, Former Secretary of the Expatriate Welfare Ministry, was a member of the Bangladesh National Human Rights Commission at the time of Abiran's murder in 2019. She submitted her investigation report when the Abiran murder case was discussed.
Giving details of the incident, Namita Halder said- “When Abiran was tortured, she died at one point. Somehow, when the Red Crescent in Saudi Arabia came to know about the matter, at some point they rescued Abiran and took him to the hospital. Then all the facts came out. The mantle was immersed in hot water. Recovered from under the hot water tab in the bathroom. Later, when the trial began, the employer said that they thought she would be cured by giving him hot water."
She said - After the Red Crescent took the body, we saw the post mortem report that she was tortured to death. But our embassy came to know about it later. She was not helped in any way while she was in the employer's house. Rather, it has been tried to hide it. Later, when the case was filed, the embassy became very active and took a leading role in handling the case.
After receiving the news of Abiran's death, the relatives applied to the Wage Earners Welfare Board of the Ministry of Foreign Employment and Expatriate Welfare to bring the body. From there, they contacted the immigration program of the non-governmental development organisation BRAC. Later, Shariful Hasan, head of BRAC's immigration program, and Al Amin Nayan, manager, continued to follow the incident. That same year, when Abiran's body returned to the country, the statement of Abiran's family and the entire incident were published in a national press at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
Later, the National Human Rights Commission started investigating the incident after taking the news into consideration. Then her investigation burden fell on Namita Halder. How did she go, how did the brokers take her, how did she come back to the airport twice, the negligence and involvement of BMET's immigration department in the BMET smart card issue on two occasions also came up in the report of the National Human Rights Commission.
The body of Fatema Akhter of Manikganj returned to the country without an autopsy. Although his preliminary report mentions a post-mortem.
Similarly, Hajera Begum's no-objection letter mentions the post-mortem, but the family knows nothing about it. Namita Halder, a former member of the National Human Rights Commission, said, "In most cases, those who die by suicide or any other incident are not informed. Only the family (employers) inform that they are dead, the body has to be sent to the country. There is no police intervention. In most cases, the case is not filed because of lack of knowledge”. According to her, various attempts were made to cover up the incidents so that no one would know.
Although the Saudi employer is directly responsible for the murder of Abiran, he was sent abroad illegally and against the law. The brokers send Abiran abroad by cheating in various ways. She was even sent abroad in immoral ways in the name of exit training. Basically fraud activities start from within the country through local brokers and recruiting agencies. In addition, the involvement of two recruiting agencies, the involvement of an employee of BMET in the case of Abiran's going abroad, and the involvement of various irregularities were brought up in the investigation report of the National Human Rights Commission. In this regard, Namita Halder said that the first time she was sent back from the airport, her BMET smart card was not received but received twice later. BMET commission is somehow often involved.'
At that time, a case was filed against 4 people including multiple recruiting agencies, agents, under sections 7 and 8 of Human Trafficking Prevention and Suppression Act-2012 at Paikgacha Police Station in Khulna. Although this case was filed in December 2019, there is no progress in the case till date. As a result, Abiran's family expressed their disappointment for not getting justice in the country.
Namita Halder said, “Sadly, those brokers are still on the move. The father was the plaintiff in the case. But both his parents are dead now. A case so discussed, the trial was completed in Saudi Arabia, but brokers roam around in Bangladesh. They are not judged. There is negligence of the police station here, initially the police station does not agree to take the case, does not investigate, does not arrest the accused, then when the family complains, the case goes to the CID later.
Abiran's family said that although the case was filed in December 2019, the charge sheet was issued in March 2022. Ayub Ali, Abiran's brother, expressed regret that the accused has not been arrested so far. He said that the police also offered to compromise at different times.When contacted to know the progress of Abiran murder case, Khulna CID investigation officer Rabiul Islam said,
On March 29, 2022, Abiran submitted the charge sheet of the murder case to the court. As a result, the case is now pending in Khulna court. However, regarding the taking of more than 2 years to submit the charge sheet, he said, as the place of occurrence was outside the country, it took so much time to collect the evidence. He informed about providing legal assistance to continue the case.
Abiraan's family is disappointed with the progress of the case. Ayub Ali said in a tone of regret – ‘father was the plaintiff in the case, now he is dead. He cried out for judgement. But could not see the trial. Where the death penalty is ordered in Saudi Arabia, criminals are roaming freely in Bangladesh’.
