Repatriated from Tanzanian Jails
Deceived workers want punishment for brokers
Twenty Bangladeshis, who had returned last year from two prisons in Tanzania, yesterday urged the government to take strict action against their brokers for fraud and to help get back their money from these brokers.
The repatriated migrants alleged that these brokers of unauthorised recruiting agencies had lured them to go to Tanzania promising them of giving lucrative jobs and had abandoned them at the border of the East African country without travel documents.
A strong broker network exists in Bangladesh and Tanzania to deceit overseas job aspirants, the workers also alleged at a press conference in Dhaka Reporters' Unity in the capital.
“We had to give huge amount of money to the brokers to migrate to South Africa. But we could not reach our destination rather we suffered a lot both in the jungles and jails of Tanzania for many daysâ€, said Faruk Hawlader, one of the 20 workers.
He said, after they were repatriated to Bangladesh last year, the government had filed a case against their brokers under the anti-human trafficking law, but the brokers are yet to face trial.
Most of these workers went abroad through local brokers without taking clearance from Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), thus making it difficult to take legal action against their brokers, said BMET Deputy Director Roksan Ara Begum.
The workers alleged that their brokers did not face any trial yet and even denied returning their money.
The 20 Bangladeshis were caught and sent to jail by Tanzanian immigration police while trying to enter South Africa without travel documents in between 2010 and 2011.
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