By Rahman Jahangir.
Dhaka, June 3:
Bangladeshi workers, deported from . . .[restrict]Libya for supposedly carrying “fake” visas, held a human chain in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka on Sunday. They urged the Bangladeshi government to help them gain compensation for what they said were the huge financial losses they had suffered in going to Libya. The protest lasted an hour.
Last week Libyan immigration officials refused to allow the Bangladeshis — 200 in all — to enter the country when they landed on the basis that their group work visas were fake. However, both the Bangladeshi government and the state-run Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) in Dhaka have rejected the allegation, insisting that the “fake” visas were in fact issued by the Libyan embassy in Dhaka. The Bangladeshi government subsequently forbad Bangladeshi workers travelling to Libya.
Egyptian workers entering Libya on group visas were similarly refused entry despite their travel documents being issued by the Libyan embassy in Cairo. The policy has now been overturned and on 30 May, 164 Egyptian workers who had previously been refused entry to Libya were allowed in on group visas.
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