Bangladesh News

Unpaid for 16 months, about 130 Bangladeshi workers have been camping out on the sidewalk near Bangladesh consulate in Jeddah for the past 10 days in protest against abuses by their employer, a construction company in Madinah.

“We are stranded in the street, eating from charity and using one of two available toilets on the consulate premises,” said Rabiul Alam, one of the employees, Arab News reported on Tuesday.

The workers said they ran away from the company because they have not been paid for 16 months nor had they been given time off work as required by Saudi labour law.

“The company has not renewed our residency permits, leaving us with fear of being deported without getting our dues,” Rabiul said. “This situation also prevents us from working elsewhere.”

Rabiul said six of his colleagues have already been arrested and might have been deported, losing their ability to claim their arrear wages or other rights.

Arab News did not mention the name of the construction company, saying it could not get any response from the company. Officials at the Saudi Labour Office were also not commenting on the matter, it said.

Meanwhile, the workers are living on charity from members of the Bangladeshi community. The consulate submitted a complaint to the Labour Office last week but officials there said they were yet to receive a response.

“We don’t know when the case will be resolved,” said Mohammad Kaisarul Islam, an official of the consulate, adding that the workers made similar complaints last year. “I hope the Jeddah Labor Office doesn’t take a long time because the workers are in a bad situation.”

He said the consulate has contacted the company, which has responded with myriad of excuses.

Ali Islam, another of the workers, said they were transferred from Madinah to Jeddah after they approached the Madinah Labor Office recently to complain a second time. “After arriving in Jeddah, we were treated badly and some of us were beaten by the company’s officials …That’s when we decided to run away to our consulate,” Arab News quoted him as saying.

The workers said they have not been provided the legally mandated minimum of 21 days of paid time off each year.

“Both my parents died last year in Bangladesh but my employer did not give me money or time off to attend their funeral,” said another worker, Alauddin.

“We have been working for free for the last 16 months and the company has not even provided us with food. We had to live by borrowing money from our fellow nationals.”

Ali Islam said the workers are asking for their unpaid wages as well as their end-of-service payments and tickets for return home. “Our salary was SR400 a month,” he said. “Is that really too much for them to pay?”