A prospective job market for Bangladeshi workers in Qatar ahead of the 2022 soccer world cup is likely to be damaged by the fraudulent practices of some unscrupulous middlemen.
Defying regulations, brokers, who are mostly Bangladeshi nationals, are allegedly cheating aspiring job applicants with promises of lucrative jobs with overcharging recruitment fees and often, falsifying visas.
“An employer in Qatar said he had not demanded any money for hiring a number of Bangladeshi workers,” Shafiul Azim, labour counsellor at the Bangladesh embassy in Doha, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.
“But later, we found that some middlemen had taken Tk400,000 from each of the migrant workers,” Shafiul added.
In another case, a broker, in collaboration with a local agent in Bangladesh, charged a migrant Tk600,000 for a job.
The counsellor, however, could not name the migrant who filed the complaint with the embassy’s labour wing.
Shafiul said a large number of brokers, who have no offices in the Gulf nation, were perpetrating such unethical practices.
“As the middlemen have no offices or addresses, it is difficult to locate them,” the embassy official said.
According to the labour wing, at least four Bangladeshi middlemen were arrested in Qatar recently for deceiving migrant workers.
The men, identified as Makbul, Enamul, Babul and Darul Islam, worked as taxi drivers. But they also allegedly ran a scam procuring and reselling tourist visas to prospective migrants for hefty sums.
“They sold a visa for Tk300,000,” Shafiul said.
After a Bangladeshi worker arrived in Qatar on a three-month tourist visa, the brokers, after a while would ask the worker to get a medical checkup.
“They would then claim that the worker had become medically unfit and had to return home,” Shafiul said.
“Unless such illegal activities are stopped, the government of Qatar will be annoyed and our prospective labour market might be affected,” the counsellor added.
Job opportunities for migrant workers, especially in the construction sector, look bright at present as Qatar is undertaking huge development projects for the FIFA World Cup 2022.
According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training,23,560 Bangladeshi workers have gone to Qatar in the first four months of this year, while a total of 57,584 went last year.