Bangladeshis' illegal foray into Iraq raises UAE ire

ANIS ALAMGIR

Recent attempts by Bangladeshi job seekers to enter the war-devastated Iraq through its bordering countries have created a problem for the ministry of foreign affairs and the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry.
Sources at these ministries yesterday said a number of Bangladeshis tried to enter Iraq illegally through neighbouring countries like Kuwait and Iran. This is due to the absence of full-fledged diplomatic missions in Iraq and Bangladesh since the middle of 2003 in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq by US-led multinational troops.
Expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry sources said that the United Arab Emirate deported at least 40 Bangladeshis recently who tried to enter Iraq without proper visa and leaving their passports and travel documents in the UAE. Bangladesh Labour attaché to Dubai was called by the UAE authorities in this regard to express its indignation.
Quoting the UAE authorities, a Bangladesh embassy official in the UAE suggested that the welfare ministry should take proper action in this regard; otherwise it would affect the interests of genuine Bangladeshi visa seekers as well as genuine labourers who are working in the UAE. Expatriates' welfare and overseas employment minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain yesterday took up the matter with the foreign ministry and called for quick action.
Bangladesh recently appointed retired diplomat Kamal Uddin, who served as a high commissioner to Malaysia, as ambassador to Iraq but till today Iraq did not respond.
'We are still waiting for the agreemo for Kamal Uddin', said a foreign ministry official yesterday.
Bangladesh had suspended the function of its embassy in Baghdad in late 2003. Since then Bangladesh's consular office in Dubai and the Bangladesh mission in Jordan are looking after Iraq affairs. For the last two years Dhaka has been trying to reopen its mission in Baghdad hoping that it will help to create job fortuities for Bangladeshi labourers and will help get some construction works for Bangladeshi firms in the war-devastated country.
Even during the war, Bangladesh kept its office in Baghdad shifting high officials to the Jordan mission. The Bangladesh Embassy of Baghdad was looted when the whole of Baghdad became a city of burglars just after the American invasion.
Two months after the American occupation, Bangladesh sent one of its junior diplomats to set up a new office and to find out the extent of damage to the Bangladesh embassy there. But the officer was also robbed at his residence where he had stayed for almost two months. The government ordered him to return home shutting down its office.
The Iraqi embassy stopped operation in Dhaka following the US-Iraq war in 2003. However, during the last few years, the two governments reiterated their readiness to reopen their missions in Dhaka and Baghdad.
Iraq has sent a month ago two mid-level diplomats to make its Dhaka mission functional. Iraqi Charge de' Affairs Satie Abdullah is working here from his residence. Iraq is also willing to send an ambassador to Bangladesh after things settle down in Dhaka.

published 30 September 2009, The Independent