As many as 17 Bangladeshi workers arrived in Dhaka on Sunday from Egypt after serving in jail for illegal stay.
They landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 11pm on a Qatar Airways flight.
According to officials of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), the workers had been languishing in a jail at Katanar Kharia of Cairo since May. MDH Holdings, a private company, arranged their air tickets, the officials added.
The workers are: Al Amin (1), Al Amin (2) and Umar Faruq of Mymensingh; Ghulam Nabi from Jessore; Latif Pamanik from Pabna; Babul Hossain from Panchagarh; Jamal Hossain from Gopalganj; Khoka Mia and Ratan Mia from Kishoreganj; Raju Ahmed from Dhaka's Nawabganj; Rabiul Islam from Jhenaidah; Shahabuddin and Rayhan from Noakhali; Sobuj Hossain from Magura; Akkas Ali from Meherpur; Nur-e-Alam from Bhola; and Shamsul Alam from Mithapukur of Rangpur district.
One of them, Akkas Ali told the Dhaka Tribune that he went to Egypt on a three-day tourist visa around eight months ago. A local recruiting agent offered him job at a juice-making company which did not pay his four months' wages. After he left the job, local police arrested him.
Rayhan said he spent Tk170,000 to go to Egypt on a tourist visa. After completion of his visa period, he contacted the Bangladesh embassy in Cairo.
He told the Dhaka Tribune that he was later arrested as the embassy officials did not assistance him.
Milona Begum, mother of Ratan Mia, said the family mortgaged their land for Tk150,000 to send him to Egypt. Ratan got a job at a garment factory where he could save Tk4,000 every month. Later, as he was travelling to Libya for better a job, he was arrested at the border.
All the deported workers alleged that before their departure, their agents in Bangladesh had assured that they were going to Egypt on permanent visas. Director of MDH Holdings Ziauddin told the Dhaka Tribune that the workers were given Tk1,000 each on their arrival.