At least 79 Bangladeshis have been held captive without trial for months in Sulaimani of Iraqi Kurdistan for allegedly trespassing into the country, according to reports in an Iraqi online news agency on Friday.
Rudaw, a Kurd newspaper, also reports, the detainees, who have been kept in a large prison cell in Sulaimani could be deported to Iran instead of sent back home.
Hiwa Sheikh Ali, head of the detention and deportation centre in Sulaimani, said: “We are waiting for the court order to deport them all back to their country.”
Atik, one of the detainees, said he had been told he would be deported in three months, but eight months have passed and he is still held without trial.
“I do not mind being deported but to Bangladesh and not Iran,” he said.
Another detainee, Abdullah Al Mamun Shahin from Noakhali, went to Dubai back in 2010 where he worked for 32 months, Shahin’s father Abdul Halim told the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday.
Abdul Halim over phone claimed his son along with some other migrants were allured by a section of middlemen, who promised Shahin of a lucrative job in Greece with Tk100,000 monthly salary.
“I paid Tk200,000 to the local agent for the job and my son was first taken to Iran where he was taken hostage for a few days,” said Halim.
“But the local agent was demanding more money by saying that otherwise the middlemen would kill my son,” he said.
To save his son’s life Halim paid another Tk60,000 to the local agent, in return the middlemen helped Shahin to cross Iran border to enter Iraq.
Halim said: “Four months back my son informed me over phone that he was detained. He said they were supposed to be produced before a court, but were not.”
Like Atik and Shahin, Sulaimani police have detained 180 Bangladeshi workers so far, and most were either deported or were hired by different companies to stay and work.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune over phone, Expatiates’ Welfare Ministry Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan said: “We are aware of the fact and we have instructed the labour wing in Iraq to provide assistance.”
The Bangladeshis were detained under the legal procedures, the secretary said. A new ambassador is likely to join there and he would look after the matter, he said.
Earlier, authorities in Egypt had detained 17 illegal Bangladeshi workers, 12 of who are still languishing in jail there while five have returned home recently.