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Download PDF Racketeers using forged ‘photocopy visas’ sent many Bangladeshi job seekers to Iraq promising well-paid jobs and deserted them in Sulaimaniya and elsewhere in that country to live a subhuman life without jobs, an investigation found.
“It is easy to forge photocopy visas. And cheats take advantage of this,” said a member of a taskforce formed in January this year to probe irregularities in recruitment system for overseas jobs.
Photocopy visas are copies of visas that employers in the UAE send to Bangladesh for recruiting workers. Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) in Bangladesh issues emigration clearance against these visas but does not have any mechanism to check if the visas are forged.
“A major portion of fraudulent practices in document forging have been found linked to photocopy visas,” said the taskforce member.
Since January this year, around 100 Bangladeshis who were cheated in the name of jobs in Iraq returned from Sulaimaniya and other places in Iraq. Over 50 of them came back home with assistance from the International Organisation for Migration.
Law enforcers arrested four in connection with illegally sending Bangladeshi job seekers to Iraq. Bangladesh does not send manpower to that country presently.
The returnees told the taskforce that there are “several hundred” Bangladeshis in various places of Iraq, who were cheated by racketeers.
The frauds forge photocopy visas to entice workers. They are instructed to wear clothes with special symbols and stay in the transit, and not to cross immigration section after their arrival in Dubai, said the task force member.
Members of the racket identify the jobseekers with special symbols like caps and then transport them by Iraq-bound aircraft from the transit, he mentioned.
Khalilur Rahman of Narsingdi, who recently returned home from a Kurdish district of Iraq, told this correspondent that several thousand Bangladeshis are there, living a subhuman life.
He said he paid Tk 1.9 lakh to two manpower brokers in Narsingdi– Humayun Kabir and Nadira — who managed his travel to Iraq via Dubai on January 29 this year.
“I managed a job of only Tk 6,000 a month but many others were unemployed. They go half-fed or unfed, ” Khalilur Rahman said.
Meanwhile, recruiting agencies said once the workers with photocopy visas arrive at the UAE immigration, officials verify the visas on their computer network. The workers are not allowed to enter the UAE if the visas are not found on the computer network.
“But misunderstandings at the UAE immigration often result in deportation of many workers,” said a recruiting agent.
Immigration officials in Dhaka said such deportation and return of Bangladeshis from Dubai are frequent. So, they have asked the government not to allow Bangladeshis to go to the UAE with photocopy visas but steps in this regard are yet to be taken.
The taskforce member said they would recommend taking up the issue of photocopy visas with the UAE authorities.
BMET Director General Abdul Malek however said there might be some cases of fraudulent practices concerning photocopy visas but the number is not that high.
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