At least 1,500 Bangladeshi migrant workers living in the trouble-torn Iraqi city of Mosul are at risk, an official concerned said.
“There are around 25,000 migrant workers in Iraq and 1,500 of them living in Mosul are at vulnerable,” Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Khondaker Showkat Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.
A good number of Bangladeshis who took refuge in different places, including hospitals, are in need of food and drinking water, he said.
“It is true that Bangladeshis in Mosul face trouble. We have communicated with International Organisation for Migration. We are ready to evacuate them, if necessary.”
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain on Thursday announced that the government was ready to evacuate Bangladeshi workers from Iraq.
Bangladeshis were safe in Karbala, Nazjaf, Kurdistan and South Iraq, he said, adding that no Bangladeshi was kidnapped or killed in Iraq.
The secretary said the Bangladesh embassy in Iraq had shifted 51 migrants from Mosul to Kurdistan. They were kept in a camp set up by the embassy with the help of Kurdistan government, but 16 of them had fled.
“If the situation does not improve, we will bring them back,” he said.
“We are in touch with the Bangladesh embassy in Iraq. We talk to the ambassador every day.”
After taking control of Mosul, militants had captured a major chunk of mainly Sunni Arab territory stretching towards the capital.
Meanwhile, the government had decided to suspend sending workers to Iraq until a safe and secure environment prevails there.
Several thousand Bangladeshi workers were waiting to go to Iraq for jobs, but the government had decided to suspend sending these workers on security grounds.
Bangladesh was closely observing the situation in Iraq and had stayed in touch with the Bangladesh embassy in Baghdad.
