7/16/2020
Migrant workers coming home: To what? | The Daily Star
of migrants struggled to get food as a result. During Ramadan, the only thing we had
for Sehri was half a litre of water.
My employers or the government did nothing to help us when we were struggling with
food shortages. My company owes me two months of salary, but because of the
pandemic, they said it was not possible for them to pay me now. After that, they
stopped contacting me and gave no support. In the meantime, my legal permission to
stay in Kuwait expired on March 23, and I became an illegal migrant.
I had to pay Tk 900,000 to get this job, and with it comes a yearly payment of Tk
270,000 to stay in Kuwait. I had been saving money from November for this, and I lived
on those savings during lockdown. Tk 220,000 gone—on just paying rent and eating.
But I survived because of this. Most Bangladeshi workers, after deducting expenses,
send their savings to Bangladesh. They are barely eating once a day. The government
regulations of opening lockdown for only two hours a day made matters worse. There
would be hundreds of us queuing to buy food from one shop, and those at the front
would get the food. Those who didn't, just had to do without.
On May 1, the Kuwait government announced that illegal migrants had one month
before they would be deported. I couldn't contact my company, so I contacted the
relevant government department instead. Through them, I got in touch with the
Bangladeshi embassy and came back home. But now that I am back, what will I do? We
cannot find new employment during the pandemic, and our families depend on us. I
appeal to the Bangladesh government to give us financial assistance and in the long
run, help us to go back to work abroad or set something up here.
I only have one more appeal to our embassies—please do not ignore migrant workers;
give them the treatment they deserve as citizens of Bangladesh. We are Bangladeshis
in another country with no parents, no guardian—if we can't turn to our own
embassies, where will we go?
https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/news/migrant-workers-coming-home-what-1922477
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