Migrant dies in Serbia

Badal Khandaker went to Serbia in November last year with hopes of a well-paying job that would ensure a better life for his family back home.

Recruiters in Bangladesh told the 48-year-old man from Singair upazila of Manikganj that he would earn between Tk 60,000 and Tk 70,000 a month working for a company in the European country.

However, upon reaching Serbia he found that the company does not exist.

In the early hours of Monday, while trying to make a journey by a lorry on way to Italy, Badal suddenly fell unconscious and subsequently died in Serbia.

A relative of the deceased, Saddam Hossain, told this newspaper yesterday that Badal's family members came to know of his death from another Bangladeshi in Serbia on Monday noon.

Arfanul Haque, labour welfare counsellor at the Bangladesh embassy in Italy, said they have identified the deceased through an honorary consul in Serbia, where Bangladesh does not have a mission.

He said they were yet to know the reason behind Badal's death since they did not get the death certificate.

The mission is trying to send the dead body home from Serbia via the honorary consul, he told this newspaper over a WhatsApp call.

Saddam, who narrated his relative's plight over phone to this newspaper yesterday, said after failing to get the job upon arrival in Serbia, Badal was under tremendous mental pressure.

He communicated with his recruiters in Bangladesh but they did not help him find another job. Badal lived on the money he took along with him and later borrowed from Bangladesh. He even took shelter at a refugee camp in Belgrade, Saddam said.

Badal had been unemployed for the past few years and had borrowed about Tk 6.5 lakh to pay the migration cost, Saddam said.

The middleman who Badal paid the money for migration to Serbia lured him with another offer of migration to Italy, this time asking for Tk 5 lakh, Saddam added.

"We want his body back home so that we can ensure his proper burial," he said, adding Badal's family already applied to the expatriates' welfare ministry to bring the body home.

At present, the body is kept at a hospital in Belgrade, he further said.

Badal earlier spent several years in a Middle East country as a migrant worker.

Badal had gone to Serbia legally through obtaining manpower clearance from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, he also said.