THIS is distressing that 11,450 Bangladeshis languish, as the foreign minister said in the parliament in a scripted answer on July 1, in jails in 31 countries. Quoting Bangladesh missions abroad, the minister says that the highest of 5,746 Bangladeshis are detained in jails in Saudi Arabia. The breakdown shows that 1,579 Bangladeshis are in jails in India, 508 are in Turkey, 420 in Oman, 415 in Qatar, 414 in Greece, 404 in the United Arab Emirates, 385 in South Africa, 358 in Myanmar, 219 in Malaysia, 217 in Iraq, 191 in China, 122 in Hong Kong, 100 in Jordan, 81 in Italy, 70 in the Maldives, 66 in Singapore, 49 in Indonesia, 28 in Lebanon, 19 in Spain, 16 in Brunei, 9 in Libya, 6 each in Egypt and Korea, 5 in Algeria, 4 in Thailand, 4 in Mozambique and 2 each in Portugal, Japan and Belgium. The number of Bangladeshis languishing in foreign jails has varied from time to time. Media reports show that 9,370 Bangladeshis are reported in February this year to have been detained in jails in 26 countries. The figure was 8,848 in 44 countries, as the media reported in July 2019. The figure was 15,149 as it was reported in November 2017. And, it was 2,459 in September 2010.
Most of the countries where a large number of Bangladeshis are detained are destinations of Bangladesh鈥檚 export of human resources. But why are they languishing in foreign jails? Although nothing can be explicitly known about the reasons that landed the Bangladeshis in most of the foreign jails, the foreign minister, in the case at hand, says that no Bangladeshis are in jails in India for entering the country by mistake. It can be safely presumed that in most of the cases, they have stood in conflict with the laws in the countries reported and a significant portion of them could be migrant workers. This suggests that the Bangladeshis languishing in foreign jails went to the countries on overseas jobs and landed in jails there at one point either having been cheated by recruiting agencies, having tried to overstay or having fallen victim to circumstances. It is, therefore, said that the government can have many of them released with some serious, earnest diplomatic effort. But do they get the needed legal support and cooperation from the Bangladesh missions concerned? There are allegations that they usually do not. It was reported long ago that Bangladeshis in other countries are given support from the missions abroad in the event of their seeking help, especially in writing. Why do the Bangladesh missions abroad do not offer the help on their own?
The people who left for destination countries to earn bread and butter and help the economy run with the remittances that they made should not be languishing in foreign jails. The government must, therefore, put in some serious diplomatic effort for their release in cases where possible. The situation not only jeopardises them but also puts their family back home in hardship.
