14 Iraq returnees seek govt help

Fourteen migrants who returned from Iraq between March and October sought the government's intervention yesterday in getting them compensation from a private recruitment agency and in taking legal measures against it for, as they claimed, fraudulence.

At a press conference at National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), they claimed to have each paid Career Overseas Consultants Ltd around Tk 2-2.5 lakh and suffered torture and confinement, forced to bear return expenses and been denied some outstanding wages.

NHRC Chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman, who was present, assured providing necessary assistance in filing a criminal case, NHRC Public Relations Officer Farhana told The Daily Star.

The migrants say the agency sent 180 of them in May 2014 promising jobs at Abu Torab Housing Project in Najaf but their Turkish employer failed to run the project due to intergroup clashes in the country. The agency Managing Director AM Badrul Amin had denied the allegations recently.