Tuesday, August 19, 2008

UAE sends back 18 workers

Eighty-two Bangladeshis, who were travelling to the United Arab Emirates as migrant workers, were sent back Monday as they could not present proper visas at Dubai airport, an immigration official said.
The UAE, a relatively new destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers, is the third country to send back Bangladeshis for various irregularities over the past month.
‘Eight-two Bangladeshis returned from the UAE on a Gulf Air flight,’ Zia International Airport’s immigration in-charge Tania told the news agency on Monday.
‘As the workers could not produce their original visas on landing at the airport, they were sent straight back,’ she said.
According to a Bangladesh-UAE agreement, all passengers must show ‘original visas’ — rather than the photocopies that overseas workers often receive from their employment agents — if they want to travel the Gulf emirates.
The provision for showing original visas has been made to prevent human trafficking as Dubai is one of the main hubs of the illegal activity. Most of those travelling with photocopied visas are suspected of being victims of traffickers.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have deported hundreds of Bangladeshi workers over the past for breaking laws of the host countries.

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