Biman flight 87 touched down at Dhaka International Airport at 6:30am yesterday laden with the remains of three labourers killed in Malaysia, expatriates’ welfare ministry deputy secretary Badiar Rahman confirmed.
Mohammad Faruk Khan, Mohammad Elahi Hossain and Mohammad Alauddin Mollik were killed on Monday night when a concrete span collapsed at the Mass Rapid Transit work site in Sungai Buloh in Malaysia.
Workers’ families, overwrought with grief, were further burdened by large financial debts.
HJ Mohd Ghazali Bin Md Hamin flew in with the workers’ remains and offered each of the three families US $5,900 in primary financial assistance.
The construction project was being carried out by MRT Corporation. MRT Corp CEO Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid resigned over Monday night’s construction site accident, Malaysia’s The Star Online reported.
Ghazali said the families would receive insurance payments. Rahman handed the dead bodies over to family members together with cheques of Tk35,000 to cover transport and burial costs.
As the families prepared to bury their sons and husbands, the pressure of paying off debts incurred to secure jobs abroad loomed on the horizon for the grieving families. Alauddin Mallik left behind his wife, two primary school-aged sons and an infant daughter.
“We owe around Tk4 lakhs and I don’t know how I will be able to repay the loan,” Shampa, Alauddin’s wife, told the Dhaka Tribune over the phone yesterday.
“My father is no longer alive, and I don’t know how I will continue my children’s education. I don’t know how we will survive,” she said.
Mohammad Faruk Khan’s mother, Hajera Khatun, 65, broke down in tears at the airport as she received her son’s remains.
She said: “My son was a good boy. He spoke to me in the morning on the day he died. His wife Mali Akter and I told him not to go abroad,” she said, adding: “I don’t know how we will pay off the debt”.
Faruk Khan’s cousin Nazrul Islam said: “Faruk’s family is in debt for around Tk500,000.” Elahi Hossain’s maternal uncle Abu Bakkar Siddique said Elahi spent TK450,000 four months ago to work in Malaysia. His family situation is not very good, his uncle said of his nephew’s financial situation.
