MM Rahmatullah: It’s really unfortunate for us that, 1000 of workers come back from KSA in last 4 days. On the other hand, around 3000 bodies of expatriate are including female workers in last 8 months; who are working for a long time there and send remittance for us and our countries development. But, what did we return to them? Rather, we are not worried for this news still now. The Prophet (Peace be upon Him) forbade to discriminate any Arab with others. There is no difference of Muslims by the color of their skin, fathers or their nations. There is no difference between the rich and the poor. The difference is simply because of their deeds and actions. He who is more fearful is more honorable to Allah Subhanahu Wa Tawa’la.

One of female worker named Nazma, a mother of two children was tortured to death in Saudi Arabia. Her children had already lost their father. Nazma had cried over phone just two days before she died. She said her Saudi employer had tortured her and was taking her to some unknown destination. "You can`t save me anymore. I will not survive," she said. Housemaids are in `great demand` there. Indonesia and Philippines stopped sending female workers there, but we opened our doors wide. We could not follow the example of the Philippines and Indonesia in saving their women. Hunger is the hardest war and that war has stretched up to the Middle East.

No one ever leaves home unless compelled. No one takes a perilous voyage over the oceans if safe on shore. If one could survive in one`s own country, no one would leave for the menacing forests in Thailand or the sands of Libya. Bodies are arriving from far away. We receive bodies in lieu of live beings. Some 11 coffins are being sent from the Middle East every day, totaling 2,611 in eight months. There are many women among these victims. Till this July, about 300,000 female workers were sent to Saudi Arabia in three and half years. Around 350 bodies of expatriate women workers arrived in three and half years, among whom 153 committed suicide as per the Saudi authorities. The ratio of suicide is 17 times higher than three years ago. So torture has increased by 17 times. Who will decide which one is suicide and which is murder? What kind of situation compels a woman who went abroad to sustain her family to take her own life? How much torture is required to opt for death over life? Among the 350, some 120 died due to `stroke`. Normally, women suffer less heart disease than men, but in a land of death young women of 20-40 years fall victim to strokes. Nazma repeatedly asked her family to save her. She urged them to sell her homestead to rescue her, but a house is far more worth than a life here. Money was not arranged to bring her back. A mother can sacrifice her life for children, but there`s no consolation in her death when she is a sex slave and tortured to death in a foreign land. Had she been in her homeland, she would have been carried on the simple `khatia`, but instead she arrived in a coffin by plane. That is development! Is this the ultimate destiny of our expatriate workers? Are they treated same as the stateless Rohingya refugees in the Middle East? In six years till 2014, some 14,000 coffins were received and still it could not alert the country which is so proud with its development. Nazma Begum is not an exception. Videos of lamenting expatriate Bangladeshi women workers are prevalent on the internet. These bruised, weeping women only plead for life, "Save me, take me back". This is not a plea to their families, but to the government and embassies too. They urge their country which depends on their remittance for all the luxuries. It`s said that money can talk, but the consumers of the money sent by the expatriate workers are silent. The expatriate workers are ill-treated and even assaulted when they seek assistance from the Bangladeshi embassies abroad. There`s no end to the humiliation of this country.

According to our politicians, president of Philippine Duterte is a hotheaded autocrat. But it took just one meeting for him to stop sending housemaids to Kuwait after a worker was killed and stuffed in a fridge in Kuwait. The body of Nazma Begum who was tortured and killed remained in a Saudi morgue for a month, and it did not affect our government and leaders. We need remittance, but we have no responsibilities to the people who earn that by leaving their lives. This silence results in no steps taken to safeguard the professional life of the expatriate workers and not doing anything to stop the illegal human traffickers. Every action has its consequences. Police assaulted primary school teachers who were demonstrating for a pay hike last week in Dhaka. It was the same in the case of Nazma`s pleas. It`s really painful for us and our country.