Govt knew of it, took no steps

The Bangladesh government had known for the past six months that 79 of its nationals, held in Iraq for illegal entry from neighbouring Iran, were being kept in a Kurdistan prison without trial.But no step was taken to free them despite repeated requests by the Bangladesh embassy in Iraq.“We sent four letters in phases to the ministries of foreign affairs and of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment respectively with details of the detained,” an official of the embassy told The Daily Star over phone, seeking anonymity.“But nothing was done for them,” he said, adding that the embassy had passed the information to the ministries right after the detainment in March.The embassy’s Labour Counselor Lt Col Ziadur Rahman also confirmed to The Daily Star that they had informed the ministries of the issue months ago.However, talking to The Daily Star on Saturday, Shameem Ahsan, director general (external publicity) of the foreign ministry, claimed that he had just got to know about the matter.Yesterday, he said they had previously tried to resolve the issue but was unsuccessful. He claimed that “now” they would look into the matter “seriously”.The Bangladeshis used to mainly work for different municipalities as garbage collectors, house cleaners and construction workers.The detainment came to light through a report of Rudaw English, a private online newspaper from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, last week.It reported that the Bangladeshis were in fear of being deported to Iran instead of being sent back home.The embassy’s labour counselor confirmed that the Kurdistan administration wanted to send the Bangladeshis to Iran as they had entered through the border.There were 121 Bangladeshis, including the 79, who had gathered at the Iran-Iraq border on arrival from some neighbouring Middle-Eastern countries at different times, he said.On entering Kurdistan, 30 of them were able to manage jobs immediately but the rest went into hiding and were finally caught by the Kurdistan security forces, he addd.Expatriates’ Welfare Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan said they had communicated with the embassy and were hoping for the detainees’ release before Eid-ul Azha.