A good number of Bangladeshi migrants have been passing days under the open sky without food and basic facilities in Lebanon while Israel announces land attacks on the East Asian country.
Migrant workers said that they were trying to reach out to the Bangladesh mission in Beirut for food support and instructions on what to do in the given conditions but did not get the expected support from them.
Neither the Bangladesh ambassador to Lebanon, Javed Tanveer Khan, nor the first secretary (labour) there, Mohammad Anwar Hossain, could be reached for comments over the telephone.
However, several charity organisations and individuals stood beside them with their limited capacity that hardly could cover all the people in need there.
Over one lakh Bangladesh nationals have been living in Lebanon as migrant workers.
Several hundred people were killed and millions of others fled their homes in Lebanon amid Israeli air strikes that were intensified since September 23.
鈥楻ain also intensified sufferings of the people staying under the open sky last night (Monday night),鈥� said Md Firuz Dakua, a Bangladeshi migrant in Lebanon.
He said that not only Bangladeshis but also nationals from several other countries took shelter under the open sky as their dwelling areas were attacked or at risk of attack.
Migrant workers said that they were yet to get any report of death of any Bangladesh national but several Bangladeshis remained missing and became injured until Tuesday evening.
Another Bangladeshi migrant, Shamim Ahmed, said that Israel attacked Beirut at least thrice Monday night.
The panicked migrants left the southern part of the country, considered to be high-risk zones, and took shelter on roads, mosques, makeshift centres, and other open spaces.
However, ambassador Javed Tanveer Khan in a video message on early Sunday had asked Bangladeshi migrants to contact them over the embassy鈥檚 helpline and hotline numbers for any sort of help.
He said that the embassy had informed the current situation to their Dhaka office and was trying to stand by the migrants.
The Bangladesh embassy in Beirut on September 27, in an emergency notice, had advised the Bangladeshis in Lebanon to stay in safe areas.
The embassy opened emergency phone numbers and asked Bangladeshi migrants to call for support. The phone numbers are 71217139 (embassy鈥檚 front desk), 70635278 (hotline), 81744207 (helpline). They were also asked to communicate through the Beirut mission鈥檚 email 鈥榤ailto: [email protected]鈥�.
The migrants, however, alleged that nobody in the embassy responded to their calls over the telephone.
It is estimated that over one lakh people now work in Lebanon, mostly in garment factories, hotels, hospitals and households.
