Bangladesh Civil Society for Migration (BCSM) has urged the government to immediately exhume the body of Umme Kulsum, a migrant worker who was killed by her employer in Saudi Arabia, for autopsy.
The advocacy body demanded that the body of 14-year-old Kulsum be exhumed -- with her family’s consent -- without any delay so the incident can be properly investigated, according to a press statement issued on Tuesday.
The organization also urged the Bangladesh government to take appropriate action so that those responsible for the incident are punished under the law of Saudi Arabia.
BCSM also demanded exemplary punishment of the Bangladeshi recruiting agency and government employees involved in illegally sending Kulsum to Saudi Arabia, where she was brutally tortured before being killed.
Earlier on September 17, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested two people, including the owner of a recruiting agency based in Dhaka, over the death of Kulsum, who was sent to Saudi Arabia as a domestic help.
Mokbul Hossain, owner MH Trade International, along with his associate Parvej Ahmed, were arrested from the recruiting agency’s Fakirapool office in Dhaka during a raid on Thursday afternoon, confirmed Polash Kumar Basu, an executive magistrate of the elite force.
“We have received two complaints, based on which the raid was conducted. One of the complaints was from Kulsum’s family,” he said.
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Talking to reporters after the drive, the magistrate said that a case against the two will be filed soon for human trafficking.
According to RAB, some 17 months ago, a local broker named Razzak Mia sent Kulsum – the daughter of Shahidul Islam of Brahmanbaria’s Nurpur village – to Saudi Arabia as a house help through Mokbul’s recruiting agency for Tk30,000.
Mokbul has also been accused of falsifying Kulsum's age to 30 in her travel documents, Polash added.
File photo: Mokbul Hossain, the owner of MH Trade International, and his associate Parvej Ahmed, arrested during a RAB raid in Dhaka on Thursday, September 17, 2020 | Collected
Immediately after she arrived in the desert country as domestic help, Kulsum’s employer started to torture her, RAB sources said.
Kulsum’s family, after getting informed about the matter, sought the help of the recruiting agency to bring her back home.
But the agency did not cooperate and told Kulsum’s family that their daughter had been severely beaten by her employer.
Kulsum was left on the streets of Saudi Arabia with one of her eyes damaged, with her waist, knees, and legs broken due to the intense torture.
At one point, local police rescued and admitted the 14-year-old to a local hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries on August 9.
Her body was brought back home on September 11.
