A total of 51 Bangladeshi nationals returned home yesterday from war-riddled Iraq.
They landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on a Qatar Airways flight around 5:30am.
Md Shariful Islam, one of the returnees, told the Dhaka Tribune they were serving as construction workers at Hanowa, a South Korean company. The workplace was 10 kilometers from Baghdad.
“We have returned home on our own cost after resigning from the company for fear of losing our lives in the ongoing strife in the Middle Eastern country,” he said.
An expatriate ministry official had said there were around 25,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers in Iraq, of whom 1,500 were living in Mosul in a vulnerable state.
In mid-June last year, the government stopped sending Bangladeshis to Iraq because of the escalation of violence the country that is now reportedly teetering on the brink of civil war. Several thousands of Bangladeshis are now waiting to be recuited for jobs in the Middle Eastern country.
