The High Court has issued a rule asking the government to explain why it should not be directed to release the 83 Bangladeshi migrant workers, who were arrested upon completion of their quarantine at Diabari Camp in Dhaka following their return from Vietnam and Qatar.
The court asked concerned authorities to provide the explanation within two weeks.
The High Court bench of Justice JBM Hasan and Justice Md Khairul Alam came up with the order on Monday after hearing a writ in this regard. Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Salah Uddin Reagan stood for the writ petition.
Secretaries to the ministries of home, law and foreign affairs, the inspector general of police, the inspector general of prisons, and the officer-in-charge of Turag police station have been made respondents to the rule.
Earlier, on September 1, police arrested and jailed the 83 migrant workers - 81 from Vietnam and two from Qatar – suspecting that they might get involved in criminal activities.
Metropolitan Magistrate Satyabrata Sikder passed the order after Sub-Inspector Md Anower Hossain of Turag police station produced them before the court seeking an order to keep them in jail until the investigation is completed.
According to the prayer placed by police before the court, the arrested migrant workers were involved in various criminal activities in Vietnam and were imprisoned there.
Moreover, police — from insider sources — found that they planned destructive activities including anti-government movement during their stay at the quarantine centre.
Earlier on August 18, a total of 106 migrant workers returned home from Vietnam on a special flight and were kept at Diabari Quarantine Camp for 14 days.
They were interrogated by police in several stages.
Upon completion of their quarantine, 83 of the migrants were arrested and the remaining 23 were released.