Stranded for 7 months

Twenty-five Bangladeshi workers have been stranded in a factory in Afghanistan for over seven months without work and salaries.

The workers at Afghan Folad Steel Mill Co Ltd have been living in miserable conditions. Strapped for cash, they hardly can meet their daily needs, let alone sending money home.

Some local workers at the factory help them manage their food. They have been asked by the factory authorities not to leave the factory compound for security reasons.

The Bangladeshis had left home for Afghanistan on October 10 last year under the arrangement of an Indian national from West Bengal. He had pledged lucrative salaries to the workers.

The Indian who worked with some of the 25 in Dhaka had managed work visas for them from the Afghan embassy there.

“The Indian worked with us at different steel rolling mills in Dhaka for about six years. When he offered us to go to Afghanistan with him, we accepted it and paid him Tk 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh each for managing visas,” one of the workers Ratan Mia told The Daily Star.

The factory in Herat city of Afghanistan produces steel billet for exporting to Middle Eastern countries. It has around 100 employees, mostly from Afghanistan.

“We got salaries for two months before the closure of the factory. Since then we are not getting any money,” said Ratan of Kurigram.

Factory owner Abdullah Rasuli had agreed to pay each worker $600 a month, but he gave only $400, he alleged.

“Now we have no work here.               We are facing serious problems in managing food and proper treatment. We can't even go out. We are              staying here like captives,” added the worker.

In April, family members of some of the victim workers filed a written complaint with the Afghanistan embassy in Dhaka against the owner of the factory. They requested the embassy to arrange safe return of their relatives.

Some embassy officials at that time had assured the relatives of looking into the matter, but they did little about it, said Zahid Alam Zia, son of another stranded worker Shah Alam Hawlader.

Ratan said an Afghan foreign ministry team visited the workers at the factory on June 8 and assured them of taking steps in this regard.

According to Zahid, a visiting Afghan government official had a meeting with embassy officials in Dhaka and the relatives of some workers. But the meeting did not yield any result.

“We are very frustrated as four months have passed since filing of the written complaint and there no visible progress,” he said.

Zia has recently given up his graduate studies as he had to take a job to support his four-member family.

His father Shah Alam from Barguna was an electrician at a still mill in Sonargaon of Narayanganj. He earned Tk 20,000 a month along with an additional Tk 15,000 as overtime allowance.

“My father had decided to go to Afghanistan to earn more. Now his life is in danger,” lamented Zia.

Faridur Rahman Biswas of Manikganj went to Afghanistan to change his fortunes, but now he only wants to save his life, said his family members.

An Afghan embassy official in Dhaka said the authorities concerned were trying to address the problems of the Bangladeshis workers and arrange their safe return home.

“We've been in touch with the victims' families since we came to know about the incident. We've informed our headquarters [foreign ministry] in Afghanistan, the governor and the police commissioner of the particular province about the Bangladeshi workers,” he added.

Victims' relatives also informed the expatriates welfare ministry of Bangladesh about the issue and sought help in this regard.

“In a meeting on Tuesday, we discussed ways of helping the Bangladeshi workers,” said Jabed Ahmed, additional secretary of the ministry.

Usually the Bangladesh government does not encourage export of manpower to Afghanistan, he mentioned.

Monwar Hossain, director general of South Asia wing at the foreign ministry, said his office was not aware of the incident. He said the ministry would look into the matter.