Heavenly turquoise blue waters, lush tropical islands and an air of isolation like that of Robinson Crusoe--these are just a few images that come to one's mind while thinking of the Maldives, a group of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean.
But for at least 15,000 Bangladeshis who went there for work, the Maldives is the name of a nightmarish place where they went to make fortune but are now barely living from hand to mouth because of unscrupulous middlemen.
Al-Amin, an 18-year-old boy who went to the Maldives in quest of fortune, finally found his destination in killing himself on July 25 out of frustration as he was not given the job assured by his middleman.
Murad, who went to the island country along with Al-Amin, somehow managed a ticket on the Dhaka-bound Best Air flight three days later. He also did not get the promised job.
Murad said, "Thousands of Bangladeshi workers in the Maldives are passing days in deep frustration as they are yet to get any job."
These workers, who are among those that keep running the wheel of economy back home by sending hard-earned dollars, blamed their inhuman suffering on the lack of government monitoring.
The Maldives, a Saarc member country with a native population of over 3,00,000, is home to about 30,000 Bangladeshis, almost half of whom work in the construction industry.
A high official of Bangladesh High Commission in the Maldives said, "There was nothing in the service contact of Al-Amin when he came here five months ago--where he will work, who will take back his dead body if he dies."
Neither the Bangladesh High Commission nor the company that took Al-Amin to the Maldives could yet manage to send his dead body back home.
The high commission has sent letters to the labour ministry to make arrangements to bring back the dead body, the high commission official told The Daily Star.
“In most cases, workers come here on tourist visas and therefore they cannot manage any job as promised by their middlemen," he said.
It is the labour ministry and the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training that should play the role of a watchdog in this regard and no worker should be allowed to leave the airport for the Maldives on tourist visa, he said.
"I do not understand how the authorities allow a worker wearing sandal and torn cloths to leave the airport on tourist visa," said the high commission official, seeking anonymity. Those who come through proper ways with full knowledge about their jobs can earn a handsome amount of money, he added.
"There is a nexus between the middlemen in Bangladesh and the Maldives. These people bring workers showing false job assurance," said Kawser, another Bangladeshi worker who also left the Maldives for Dhaka after five months of inhuman life on an island of the Maldives.
"I spent about Tk 1.6 lakh and the middleman assured me of a nice job with a salary of Tk 30,000 a month but after waiting for several months I got a construction related job with only Tk 5,000 salary," he said.
"Nothing attracted us in the Maldives--the deep blue sea or anything...Every Friday we would gather in a park and share our sorrows," said another victim named Ilias who along with Kawser and nine others managed to come back home.
There are some Bangalee guesthouses in the Maldives where they were accommodated in small rooms with small amount of food, Murad and Kawser said.
"I used to earn Tk 7-8 thousand per month in the Maldives working at least 16 hours a day with a one-hour lunch break," said Murad.
Sri Lanka and India have set a minimum wage of $130 for their workers in the Maldives while the minimum wage for a Bangladeshi worker is about $80-100.
"We could not ensure our workers their rights and interests due to the lack of attention of the government authorities concerned. Dishonest recruiting agencies and middlemen just take this opportunity," he said.
Source: thedailystar.net
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