‘I have heard stories of slavery in my childhood and earnestly hated how people used to make another person treat like a slave in ancient times. However, I, myself, have now become a modern-day slave as a migrant worker in Iraq. I have landed in Iraq with the hopes of turning the wheels of my fortune but now I am just living a life of a migrant-slave.’
This is how an unfortunate Bangladeshi expatriate in Iraq named Mohammad Pintu has sketched his awful life in trouble-torn Iraq which is caught in civil war among different forces including arch-rival Shia-Sunni conflicts.
Pintu, like many other middle-class young man from Meherpur’s Gangni upazila left Bangladesh for Iraq with the stardust in his eyes to change his lot around seven months ago through a tourist visa (Ziarat visa) by Adib Recruiting Agency. Since then, he has been stuck in the war-battered country facing stinking death any moment as stench of death lurk.
“There will be no problem if you want to go to Iraq through a tourist visa. Our people will engage you in a respectable work when you lands in Iraq and you will also be given an Iqama visa (work permit). You will get $500 per month for working eight hours a day,” the officials of the agency assured Pintu before his flight to troubled Iraq where few people having known the real situation would go.
“But this was a sheer cheating. When we landed in Iraq a group of brokers snatched away our passports and sold us to an Iraqi businessman in Tikrit. The businessman engaged us in Friends Matam, a fast food shop at Market Siblash of Samara in the city where we have to work around 16 hours a day without any break. If we say that we cannot work for such long period, the businessman threatens us to hand over to police. Here we are paid only $340 per month,” Pintu said during talks with thereport24.com through Skype call.
With tension escalating in Iraq amid the ongoing sectarian conflict between its Sunni Muslim minority and Shia majority, Bangladeshi expatriates are now staying in the Islamic state with life-risk where death fear haunts them all the time amid bombing and fierce fighting amid civil war; especially those who are living in war-ravaged Tikrit and Masul, are in dire need of evacuation as those places are captured by rebels from the government forces having fragile control over the most of the key towns and countryside.
Thereport24.com had a conversation with Pintu on June 15. He, then, said that he along with 13 other Bangladeshis had been trapped in a fast food shop of Tikrit where the militants launched attacks on Thursday and captured both the towns from Iraqi government forces.
“We are working here with the fear of death as life has become so risky here. We don't know what would happen to us anytime. We are literally stuck in the shop as the city is being bombed since last week. Most of the city-dwellers have already left to take shelter in nearby cities deemed safe in the war zone. The owner of the fast food shop has already fled away from the city. And, even one of his representatives is not coming to the shop for the last three days,” said Pintu earlier narrating his present state in Iraq war zone.
The Bangladeshis who has been trapped in war-torn Tikrit since last week, demanded quick measures from the government of Bangladesh so that they could be brought back to their motherland soon. But with no avail. Even the Bangladesh Embassy did not bother to inquire about their situation despite repeated SOS call made to it on many occasions.
After getting stuck in a Tikrit restaurant for some days, seven Bangladeshi migrants took shelter to Tikrit Medical University and Hospital a few days ago, which is thought to be a safer place in the war zone.
Among them, Jahangir Alam Khokon who landed in Iraq through a three-month tourist visa said, “Agency officials assured us that we will get new visas just after arrival in Iraq and our work destination would be in a construction site.”
“However, we found a different scenario after reaching Iraq. We have already been sold for thrice by agency brokers in Iraq. Before the civil war, we used to work for around 16 hours a day uninterruptedly. We did not even get medical leave during our illness,” he added.
The same story was echoed when Thereport24.com contacted with another such unfortunate migrant worker trapped in Iraqi slavery. His name is Yasin Ali. He, along with three other young men, landed in Iraq on March 11 on tourist visa.
“We were told that we would be working in a construction site and get $500 per month. Instead of getting such work, the agent brokers snatched away our passports in the airport and we were kept confined in a Baghdad factory without even water and food for three months. We did not get any salary there. Sometimes we even had to spend the day through drinking water from bathroom. However after around three months, we managed to flee away from the factory,” he said.
It is estimated that over 14,000 Bangladeshi nationals are working in Iraq, mostly in the construction sites in extreme harsh condition.
Although there is limited scope for work in Iraq at present, an unscrupulous and organized syndicate of recruiting agencies is illegally sending Bangladeshi migrants to the war-battered country with allures of lucrative jobs.
The agencies charge each person Tk 3 lakh to 3.75 lakh for this making huge sum for them for trapping them basically to slavery in modern-day world as after landing in Iraq the unfortunate Bangladeshis are being sold to Iraqis running slavery rackets in their dens.
These migrants become illegal as soon as they land in Iraq and also undergo untold sufferings afterwards as slave.
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment secretary Dr Khandker Showkat Hossain told thereport24.com the government decided to suspend sending workers to Iraq until safe and secure environment is established there.
While commenting on sending Bangladeshis to Iraq illegally, he said that the matter does not belong to his ministry and he also suggested to make contact with the ministries of home and tourism.
