Gulf War returnees still await 95pc of UN compensation

Around 72,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers who returned home during the Gulf War are still deprived of most of their approved compensation, leaders of the Iraq-Kuwait Returnee Bangladesh Welfare Association alleged on Wednesday.

At a press conference at the National Press Club, association president Kazi Nazrul Islam said the affected workers had received only 5 per cent of the compensation approved by the United Nations, while the remaining 95 per cent remains unpaid.

He alleged that the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) had failed to take effective steps to ensure payment of the dues, leaving thousands of returnees in hardship for decades.

The association urged the government to take immediate steps to pay the outstanding compensation and rehabilitate the returnees. It also demanded implementation of its 10-point charter of demands.

Association leaders further alleged that profits earned from compensation funds deposited in 11 private banks until 2000 were used to purchase 151.54 kathas of land in Gulshan, Baridhara, Kalachandpur and Bhatara. They claimed planned projects, including a kidney hospital and an IT centre on the land, were never implemented and demanded that the property be returned to the returnees.

The organisation also alleged that authorities collected original passports and other documents from returnees between 1997 and 2005 but never returned them.

The association warned that it would announce fresh protest programmes after July 30 if the government fails to respond to its demands by June 30.