Dignity should not depend on documents

The testimony of Netrakona’s Md Rasel Mia should trouble every policymaker. As reported by this paper yesterday, he borrowed Tk4.5 lakh to go to Saudi Arabia on the promise of a hospital job, ended up unpaid on a camel farm, and was jailed for 41 days after his iqama lapsed. He came home with only the clothes he wore. His is not an isolated case. The foreign minister told parliament on 10 September that about 10,066 Bangladeshis are in prisons worldwide. Earlier figures showed citizens held in 31 countries, with Saudi Arabia accounting for 5,746. A study in the journal “Discover Social Science & Health” describes overcrowded cells, scant food and water, poor sanitation, little medical care and alleged beatings across several host countries.
The government’s response must begin by abandoning a damaging distinction. The Wage Earners’ Welfare Board concedes that legal assistance is primarily available to workers registered with the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, leaving undocumented migrants with far less. Yet consular protection is a citizen’s right, not a reward for paperwork. Missions should provide legal aid to every detained Bangladeshi, visit prisons regularly and press host governments for humane treatment and prompt repatriation. The Wage Earners’ Welfare Fund, built on migrants’ own contributions, should help pay for lawyers. Ministries must also coordinate better, since the foreign ministry’s own legal affairs wing was unavailable for comment on a matter of this gravity. Equally, the brokers who sell false promises must face prosecution, and recruiting agencies must be held accountable for what happens to those they send.
Awareness is the other half of the remedy. Many detainees went abroad on high-interest loans or sold land, and so were trapped from the start. Pre-departure briefings, district-level campaigns and local government outreach should explain the risks of irregular routes, the safe channels available, and workers’ rights to renew permits and to refuse confinement by employers. Returnees deserve more than sympathy. As Tasneem Siddiqui of RMMRU has urged, they need rehabilitation, psychological support and a chance at employment at home, so that debt does not push them out again.
Finally, Bangladesh draws heavily on migrant earnings, and it owes those who earn them a reciprocal duty. Dhaka should raise detention conditions in bilateral talks and international forums and invite scrutiny from human rights bodies. A country that celebrates remittances cannot look away when their senders are stripped, starved and beaten. Protecting such citizens is a test of its commitment to their dignity.