| Written by Ajay Makan, Minivan News, on 21-08-2007 17:22 |
Bangladesh’s High Commissioner has told Minivan News he will consider pulling his country’s 25,000 expatriate workers out of the Maldives, if the governnment cannot guarantee their security.
The warning comes after police failure to prevent a wave of attacks on the dormitory of Bangladeshis working for the Malé Municipality.
While the High Commissioner was discussing the attacks with Home Minister Abdullah Kamaldeen, news broke of the brutal castration and murder of a Bangladeshi on Kulhudhufushi in Haa Daal.
The High Commission received hundreds of calls from anxious Bangladeshis, and fear among the immigrant community is at its highest ever level.
Vulnerability
In a country of only 300,000, Bangladeshi immigrants provide essential labour in the tourism and construction industries.
The vast majority are manual labourers, earning less than a $100 a month and living in shared accommodation.
Personal accounts suggest the community has suffered disproportionately from theft and violence in the capital Malé. But it is the recent phenomenon of mob attacks on Bangladeshis in their own homes, which has angered the Dhakka government.
On four successive nights from 1 August a gang of around twenty five Maldivians broke into quarters shared by one hundred and fifty Bangladeshis working for the Municipality’s Road Construction team.
Three Bangladeshis were injured and one hospitalised on 1 August, as the gang attacked with metal bars.
On 9 August the Bangladeshi High Commission requested constant police surveillance and regular visits to the quarters for an indefinite period.
Intensive Care
Undertakings made by the police were not kept to, according to the High Commission.
And on 18 August a mob of between fifty and sixty Maldivians returned to the quarters armed with rods, sticks and smashed glass bottles.
Police took around forty-five minutes to reach the scene, by which the time the gang had disappeared, leaving shattered windows and smashed vehicles.
Most of the workers were able to move inside their quarters, but four who were trapped in the courtyard were set upon by the gang.
One, a thirty five year old named Buruz, received several blows from a metal bar to his head, chest and back.
He was taken to IGMH on Friday night and was in intensive care for two days.
He is now in a stable condition on surgical ward, but his injuries may force his repatriation to Bangladesh.
Blood On The Floor
“I don’t want to stay in Malé anymore. I will go back to Bangladesh as soon as I can pay off my bond, [$2,000 owed to an agent for transport from Dhakka],” Mr Buruz said from his IGMH bed.
His colleagues remaining in the accommodation are equally anxious.
They gather in the courtyard to point out blood stains, discarded weapons and boarded up windows, all left over from Friday’s attack.
But fearful of “retaliation,” they refuse to have their photos taken, or their names recorded.
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“The gang members told me they would only stop when all Bangladeshi workers are dead,” one of those injured on Friday tells me.
The workers are frustrated at the police’s failure to protect them.
“They only come when the fighting is over,” says one. “How can we feel safe when they allow attacks on our own home.”
“They hardly catch anybody, and they release the ones they do. They don’t care about Bangladeshis,” claims another.
Xenophobia
The incident came just a week after a Bangladsehi worker was found tied to a tree in the capital, Malé. He reports he had been left outside by his employer for nine days.
And on Tuesday, the High Commission received hundreds of calls from the community after the murder and castration of a Bangladeshi on the northern island of Kulhudhufushi.
“I worry it is a sign of general social apathy towards immigrants,” says the Bangaldeshi High Commissioner, Mijarul Quayes
“If nurtured, it could create a state of intolerance, xenophobia and the denial of rights to others.”
The High Commission has sought answers from the Foreign Office after each of the last three incidents.
And on Tuesday Mr Qauyes met the Home Minister Abdullah Kamaldeen to demand high visibility policing around the Bangladeshi dormitory, and police visits to the workers inside.
Warning
For now the High Commissioner says he is willing to “wait and see” if the police meet his demands in coming weeks. But he is increasingly impatient.
“If a man is mugged on the street, I can understand. But I will be upset if there is another attack on this dormitory or any other quarters housing Bangladeshis. And I will be upset if the police take forty five minutes to arrive after an attack. There is no justification in a place as small as Malé.”
He wants the Maldivian government to take “confidence-building measures,” to show they are serious about the security of Bangladeshis.
“I suggested the Home Minister visits the quarters to show our people the government is standing with them.”
And the diplomat says he will be forced to consider the presence of Bangladeshis in the Maldives if the security situation does not improve.
“My primary role is to ensure the safety of my countrymen,” Mr Quayes says.
“If I cannot guarantee the security of our citizens, I would be forced to advise my government to alters its policy on sending workers. And we would have to think of withdrawing existing workers en masse.” Courtesy: Minivan News
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