Reunited after 35 years

Brac Migration Programme on Friday night handed a man to his family members following his return to Bangladesh from Pakistan after 35 years.

Abdul Jabbar, 70, has reportedly been stuck in Karachi all these years while en route to Iran for a job arranged through a middleman, as per information from Brac and his family.

Shariful Hasan, the associate director of Brac Migration Programme, yesterday said they have handled a minimum of 10 cases in the last six years, involving the need to locate the families of returnees and reunite them following a prolonged lack of communication.

In the past six years, Brac Migration Programme provided support to about 34,000 returnee migrants. Out of these cases, Brac had to find out families of 124 returnees and reunite them, Shariful told this newspaper over phone.

As part of its initiatives, Brac Migration Programme provides various support services to both returnee and outbound migrant workers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital.

Shariful said they learnt about Jabbar's case when his son Kamal Hossain communicated with them a couple of months back and sought support to get back his father.

He said Jabbar returned home on a flight on Friday night.

Later, he was taken to Brac's welfare centre in Ashkona where his family members were waiting, he said. After due procedure, Jabbar was handed over to his family around 11:30pm on that night.

Kamal told this newspaper over phone that when his father left the country in 1988, he was in his mother's womb. He said his family learnt about his father's condition after he sent a letter from Pakistan's Karachi in January this year.

In the letter, Jabbar mentioned he could not return home as he had no valid documents, said Kamal, who is the youngest among three siblings and hails from Barishal's Bakerganj upazila.

Later, Kamal communicated with Brac through its official Facebook page and sought support for his father's return.

"The moment we learnt he was still alive, each of our days passed in eagerness to get him back," Kamal added.

He said in his long stay in Pakistan, his father had to serve a jail term and was involved in different occupations for survival.