As the Gulf kingdom bids to host a World Cup that will see its reliance on cheap foreign labour soar, planeloads of men already return daily to Dhaka, gaunt, dazed and broke
Sabir Ahmed, 65, spent 26 years working in Saudi Arabia before being deported. He returned to Dhaka with nothing to show for his time there.Sabir Ahmed, 65, spent 26 years working in Saudi Arabia before being deported. He returned to Dhaka with nothing to show for his time there.
Another man says: “I was told I would work in a restaurant in a five-star hotel but ended up in a tea stall.” A third says he worked for three months but was only paid one month’s salary. “I’ve lost all my money,” he says.. The pipeline of workers from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia is expected to increase dramatically if the country is anointed host by Fifa, as expected this year.
“My boss cancelled my iqama without telling me,” says Mohammed Rohmotullah, who had worked in Saudi Arabia for three and a half years. “When the police caught me, they called him and he told them to send me back. He owed me six months’ wages.”Others say their iqama was still valid but they were deported regardless. “I asked them: why are you arresting me?” says a deportee named Shahabuddin. “They told me to shut up.
The workers interviewed by the Guardian say they were rounded up on the streets or picked up while eating breakfast and taken directly to a detention centre, where they were typically held for one to two weeks before being sent straight home.
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