In the 18 August 2020 edition of the online newspaper, The Daily Star, it was reported that at least 255 Bangladeshi migrant workers who have completed their quarantine for COVID-19 after their deportation from Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, are now being detained in the Kashimpur jail in Bangladesh allegedly for violation of Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for “suspicious activities”, despite obtaining pardon in the host countries they have returned from.We denounce the grave violation of these migrant workers’ rights and the aggravating situation they have been coerced into, which not only puts the workers at a high risk of exposure during a global pandemic but also forces unnecessary worry and fear onto the workers and their families during an already challenging time. It is in this regard that we, Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) and Lawyers Beyond Borders (LBB), are issuing a statement appealing to the Bangladeshi government to urgently release the 255 returned Bangladeshi migrant workers who were wrongly imprisoned in their own country without committing any new crime after their pardon in the host countries they have returned from. Please find attached the statement.
We would like to call on our partners and colleagues to join us in this appeal and circulate this among your network and through your online platforms and social media.
William Gois
Regional Coordinator, Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA)
