Korea or other nations, their laborers hardly face such dire situation mostly because their laborers are relatively better educated and their embassies are responsive to the needs of their nationals.  For example, when the Labor Ministry reaffirmed that the Council of Ministers' clear decision that no private company can shift the expenses or charge their expatriate employees the 'government fees' such as Iqama fees or Exit/Re-Entry fees and if they do, they must refund them all such charges, the above embassies immediately, on behalf of their nationals have filed Court cases for refund. Thus, they are helping the Saudi government to fully implement the government's regulation. In contrast, Bangladesh Embassy has not started filing a single case of refund yet. Rather they discourage anyone to approach them on the ground of resource limitation.  Moreover, the Embassy does not think it is their responsibility unless the Bangladesh Manpower and Labor Ministry directs them accordingly. Unfortunately, the Labor & Manpower Ministry in Bangladesh does not know about this policy and therefore, they cannot direct them. There is not only lack of communication but also inefficiencies and insensitivity involve. 

Expressing sympathy for the Bangladeshi labor, a senior Saudi official stated that the major cause of 'poor treatment' of Bangladeshi labor is their own people and their government.  He said, their manpower businessmen are 'too greedy' and therefore, they exploit their countrymen. It is the responsibility of their Embassy to see that their countrymen are not being exploited, he added.  If they correctly monitor their manpower agencies, such problem will never recur.  Most of the Saudi Manpower Agencies that deal with Bangladeshi labor are actually owned, managed and run by Bangladeshi nationals. Generally a Saudi national is only their sponsor and he gets a certain fixed amount. He has no idea how much fees is being charged and how the labors are being treated.  The Saudi government do not want to disturb 'peace loving' businessmen. Therefore, they do not ask them to submit status report.  It is the responsibility of the Bangladesh Embassy. However, they may solicit local help when needed.  If they ask for help, the Saudi law enforcing agencies will promptly respond them, he added. Important element is, the embassy has to ask for help or report the matter.  Ambassador Mahbub Alam and outgoing Labor Counselor Mostafizur Rahman agreed that whenever they report any event to the Saudi authority, they take prompt actions.  Unfortunately, they do not have resources nor has mind set to report to the Saudi authority. Many non-resident Bangladeshis living in the Kingdom have the belief that the Bangladesh officials' inactivity is due to their monetary relationship with the manpower business mafia. 

We further learned that in a recent hearing, the Makkah Labor Court of the Kingdom ordered the Oyon Al-Hejaz Company to pay back wages to its 200 Bangladeshi employees in Makkah. To evade such orders, they sent back 18 laborers that went to the Labor Court. Their back pay was used to buy their air tickets that are again illegal as per the Saudi Labor Laws. 

There are nearly 900,000 Bangladeshi labor working in the Kingdom. Not everyone is in bad shape. Many companies treat their employees with honor and respect; at least they pay their wages, allow them their vacation time and free ticket to visit home as per contract.  Most of them honor their contract. A few, however, have the tendency to write two or more contracts, one more lucrative at the time of recruitment in the home country and another less favorable at the time of their arrival in the host country.  In addition, where some companies face cash flow difficulties due to delayed payment, they withhold labor wages for months as it is easy and less burdensome. These labors are illiterate and secondly, they are under so much subjugation that they would have very little courage to report it to the Labor Court. As such rogue companies do not pay any extra penalty owing to delayed payment of wages, in many cases; this has become a norm rather than an exception to the general rule. 

As many Bangladeshi poor laborers are not paid on time, they fend for themselves by going out and cleaning private cars. Many Saudis and expatriate professionals are generally benevolent to pay them out of mercy for such cleaning job. Therefore, many make good money out of such business. In some cases, they have to deposit a part of their such earnings to their supervisors. Otherwise, they are disallowed to do such jobs during their off time.  Many Bangladeshi laborers reported that the Saudi Police are generally very sympathetic to them. Most of the time, they do not bother them too much for collecting money for car washing neither they ever take any share. However, at times, they arrest them, fine and imprison them. When they are arrested, their owners known as 'kofil' has to appear before the police officer to release them. Many kofils do not like to do it and therefore, at times, they have to stay longer hours in the jails.  Their embassy or their consulate have neither any 24-hours toll free numbers nor are they sensitive to their calls and therefore, they hardly get any help from their embassy. No one among 40 Bangladeshi laborers of a villa of which a few were arrested for car wash or for walking in the streets without iqama [registration card which every expatriate are required to carry at all times] could recall that their Embassy ever helped them to get released.     

We are further informed that each labor has paid nearly Tk125,000 (SR9300= $2,480) to their recruiting agencies in Bangladesh. More importantly, the Saudi recruiting agency, i. e. Oyon Al-Hejaz Company collected SR3,000 to SR4,500 from the Bangladesh recruiting agencies for each visa, it is reported. If this is true, then they have already made nearly SR6 million from issuing 1,500 work permits or visa.  That is not all.  Now, if a worker under their sponsorship gets disgusted owing to starvation and sleeplessness, and if that person asks the company to return him home, they are glad to send him back as they can easily sell the same work permit again to make easy money. No one knows how many times same visa or work permit has been sold. However, for such early departure, they also force him to pay all the necessary expenses that range between SR900 to SR2,300 per person. The company is not paying any penalty for their early return although as per Saudi Law, if anyone is sent back without valid reason, he must be paid in full for the 'full contract' term. First, the Bangladeshi laborer does not know this regulation and secondly, once he is sent home, he has no way to file a case to the Saudi Court. Moreover, since the Embassy does not keep any record, they can never help the helpless either. They have another avenue to make money as well.  If a labor asks them to issue 'Free Visa", they gladly do it [free visa means he can work for anyone, he is no longer bonded to the recruiting company]. However, that labor has to pay them an additional SR2,000 to SR3,000 per person. The loser in this game, first the poor labor and secondly, the government of Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. I am also told that one can get an assignment for a longer period in one location if he can pay additional money prior to recall or transfer.  So much racketeering is going on in this business and poor laborers that are building beautiful cities and towns and keeping its street and palaces clean are being cheated right and left.  No wonder, manpower business is one of the most lucrative businesses in the world and many professionals like engineers and doctors left their professions to become manpower businessmen to make quick money.  It is a 'gold mine' and one can make money faster than drug business.     

Bangladeshi laborers are mostly ill educated, poor and helpless. Before their departure for Saudi Arabia, they are not given any training or orientation by their local recruiting agencies nor the government on their rights, privileges, or on existing Saudi and Bangladeshi labor laws and regulations. Therefore, they are treated as 'modern day slave', completely at the mercy of scrupulous recruiters. Many of these recruiters owing to government's complete deafness find it easier to extort and exploit the poor laborers. The miseries that are often reported mostly owe to lack of supervision and of course, for poor education. It is unfortunate that although labor export or alternatively the home remittance being the largest single most foreign exchange earners of Bangladesh after garments, adequate attention is lacking in this area. Currently nearly 2.5 million Bangladeshis are living abroad and nearly 900,000 in Saudi Arabia alone. Their annual remittance is nearly $2 billion and nearly 48% remittances come from Saudi Arabia. Most of these expatriates have job abroad due to efforts by manpower agencies--- they deserve credits for their ingenuity. However, a few of them are bad apples and in the absence of government supervision, they become despotic and ruthless. In this game of manpower business, very often the individual labor loses all that he has; money, health, moral strength, motivation, respect for life and develop disgust for the host as well the home government.  The government loses its goodwill while the recruiters make enormous profits by exploiting the poor labor. No wonder Machiavelli is still sound right that this world is for 'survival of the fittest'.

Dr. Abdul Momen, Professor of Economics and Management is President of the Women & Children International (WCI), Inc., a Boston-based humanitarian organization The writer of this story has got repeated 'death threats' since he reported the incident to the Bangladesh Embassy, Riyadh.