JEDDAH, 8 April 2008 — About 130 Bangladeshi workers have been camping out on the sidewalk near their consulate for the past 10 days in protest over abuses they say have been inflicted on them by their employer, a construction company in Madinah.
“We are stranded in the street, eating from charity and using one of two available toilets in the consulate’s premises,” Rabiul Alam, one of the employees, told Arab News yesterday.
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 from work as required by Saudi labor law. As he sat next to his meager belongings, Alam admitted that he and his co-workers are officially illegal residents.
“The company has not renewed our residency permits, leaving us with fear of being deported without getting our dues,” he said. “This situation also prevents us from working elsewhere.”
Alam claims that six of his colleagues have already been arrested and may have been deported, losing their ability to claim their back wages or other rights.
Arab News is withholding the name of the company until it has responded to or acknowledged the complaints. Several attempts yesterday to get a response from the company failed because the spokesperson for the company was unavailable for comment. Officials at the Labor Office were also not commenting on the matter yesterday.
Meanwhile, the workers are living off charity from members of the Bangladeshi community. The consulate officially submitted a complaint to the Labor Office last week, but officials there said that they have yet to receive a response.
“We don’t know when the case will be resolved,” said Mohammad Kaisarul Islam, a consulate spokesperson, 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 that 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,” said Islam. “That’s when we decided to run away to our consulate.”
Awadulddin claims that 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,” he said. “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.”
The workers are asking for their unpaid wages as well as their end-of-service payments and tickets back to their home country. “Our salary was SR400 a month,” said Islam. “Is that really too much for them to pay?”
