Live Correspondent: Some 130 Bangladeshi workers returned home from Saudi Arabia on Thursday night amid crackdown on undocumented workers there.
With the new returnees, around 12,000 Bangladeshi workers have so far been retuned home from Saudi Arabia during the current year.

A flight of Saudi Airlines carrying the workers landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka around 11:30pm, said Shariful Hasan, programme head of Brac Migration Programme.

The authorities concerned of Wage Earners Welfare Board with the help of the Brac Migration Programme provided necessary assistance, including food, to the Bangladeshi workers following their arrival, he said.

The workers who returned home, said hundreds of workers were being arrested in their residents every day and sent to deportation camp.

They have been sent back home despite having valid documents and their employers also did not take any measures even after being contacted over phone, Shariful said quoting the workers.  

Saudi Arabia has been detaining people for residential, labour and border security regulations since November 2017. Officials said, about 25,000 Bangladeshis have returned home in the first nine months of this year after losing their jobs abroad.

Officials said, about 25,000 Bangladeshis have returned home in the first nine months of this year after losing their jobs abroad.

Half of them came back from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the largest job market for Bangladeshi nationals. In between January and September, about 12,000 returned from Saudi Arabia, according to BRAC Migration Programme.

Besides, about 4,000 retuned from the UAE, 3,000 from Oman, 2,500 from Malaysia, 1,500 from Qatar and 1,000 from the Maldives.

The number of returnees might go up in the days to come as the authorities of Saudi Arabia and Malaysia have intensified crackdown on undocumented foreign workers, according to migration experts.

They said Saudi Arabia has been deporting thousands of illegal foreign workers as part of labour market reforms, while Malaysia will take the same steps after December and thus may lead up to a higher number of returnees.

Dhaka 05  October (campuslive24.com)//Az