Bangladeshis booted

WITH the sound of gunshots echoing in their ears, their hopes in tatters and underlying whispers of suicide, the first of about 372 Bangladeshi men brought to Namibia to work at the Ramatex Textile Factory were deported yesterday.

“Many of these people will commit suicide when they are back in Bangladesh. So much [of our] money has been lost,” one of the workers, who gave his name only as Jalil, told The Namibian as he waited to board a bus in front of what had been his home for just over a month.The deportation follows a turbulent week in Windhoek.Tensions over “horrific” living conditions and broken promises erupted into riots at the factory on Thursday and at the workers’ hostel on Friday, when shots were fired to bring the situation under control.Yesterday, dressed in their best clothes, the first 30 men to leave did not put up any resistance as Police reservists helped them load their belongings.”We are all very, very poor men,” said Obaidur Rahman.”Ramatex has damaged our future,” he charged.Ramatex, which is Malaysian run, has laid the blame squarely at the door of Eastern Overseas, the agency that recruited the Bangladeshis.Also under fire is Saujana Blossom Import and Export Namibia, which was responsible for arranging accommodation for them.FAMILY FEARS The men’s search for employment at the Ramatex Textile Factory saw them arrive with high hopes only a few weeks ago.Yesterday they said they feared returning home.They are desperately worried that they will be shunned by their families for having spent so much of their meagre resources in the hope of trying to provide support for them.Ramatex said it was forced to break its contract with Eastern Overseas and send the men home because there had been too many discrepancies between the factory’s original agreement with the agency and the current situation.A group of at least 100 Bangladeshis are expected to leave Namibia today.The rest will depart tomorrow.The company agreed to pay them one month’s salary of U$120 before they left, but said there was nothing it could do to help the men recover US$3 500 they each paid the recruiting agency Eastern Overseas, to secure work for them work at Ramatex.Ramatex General Manager Khayhiang Lim told The Namibian that the Ramatex Group had already instituted legal proceedings in Malaysia against the recruitment agency because it had failed to deliver on its promises.”We corresponded several times with the agent on the issue of unskilled workers being sent from Bangladesh.The delay by the agent in dealing with the issue of the unskilled workers, has eventually led to the cancellation of the recruitment agent,” said a statement issued by the factory yesterday.’ONLY SOLUTION’ Following riots at the factory on Thursday and again at their hostel on Friday afternoon, the company said it had decided to pay for all the Bangladeshi workers to return home as an immediate solution to the problems they had encountered since their arrival.The men physically attacked their agent shortly after he arrived in Windhoek on Friday.He visited Namibia following complaints by the factory that it had been sent unskilled workers and to iron out issues related to their poor living conditions.Enraged by their treatment, the Bangladeshis mobbed Eastern Overseas Managing Director – a man known only as Alif – when he entered the property where they live, forcing the Police Unit Reservists to fire at least six rounds of live ammunition to break up the riot.Ramatex paid the agency US$580 for every person recruited.On Saturday, the factory once again enlisted the aid of the Police to tell the men that they would not be granted work permits and that they would have to go home.The factory had paid for entry visas for the men.Lim said the factory had decided to hold off on applying for work visas for the men when it was discovered that they were unskilled and following a report in The Namibian a month ago: the newspaper detailed the squalid, cramped and unhygienic conditions the men were being made to live in at three small houses across the road from the factory in Otjomuise and at a private residential property in Windhoek West which has now become known as ‘The Ramatex Hotel’.In its press statement, the Ramatex management admitted oversight on its part in not checking that the workers’ living arrangements were satisfactory.”It is not Ramatex policy to provide such living conditions for any of our employees.Admittedly the management had overlooked the accommodation issue as the accommodation service provider which Ramatex contracted was responsible for such,” it said.The men rioted at the factory on Thursday in protest against their treatment and demanded the same living conditions as other Asian workers employed by the factory.Lim said it was not possible to provide living arrangements for the men at the factory.She said being Muslims, they had different food preparation requirements.The factory paid Saujana Blossom Import and Export Namibia – a company linked to the Eastern Overseas agents and locals father and son, Willie and Desmond Gertze – US$70 per person a month to arrange their accommodation.The National Union of Namibian Workers claimed the Gertzes were related to Namibia’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, Neville Gertze.The Namibian was unable to confirm this by the time of going to press.The City of Windhoek said on Friday that it had already instituted legal action against the owner of the house Flip Bredenhann where illegal renovations had taken place to accommodate all the men.So much [of our] money has been lost,” one of the workers, who gave his name only as Jalil, told The Namibian as he waited to board a bus in front of what had been his home for just over a month.The deportation follows a turbulent week in Windhoek.Tensions over “horrific” living conditions and broken promises erupted into riots at the factory on Thursday and at the workers’ hostel on Friday, when shots were fired to bring the situation under control.Yesterday, dressed in their best clothes, the first 30 men to leave did not put up any resistance as Police reservists helped them load their belongings.”We are all very, very poor men,” said Obaidur Rahman.”Ramatex has damaged our future,” he charged.Ramatex, which is Malaysian run, has laid the blame squarely at the door of Eastern Overseas, the agency that recruited the Bangladeshis.Also under fire is Saujana Blossom Import and Export Namibia, which was responsible for arranging accommodation for them.FAMILY FEARS The men’s search for employment at the Ramatex Textile Factory saw them arrive with high hopes only a few weeks ago.Yesterday they said they feared returning home.They are desperately worried that they will be shunned by their families for having spent so much of their meagre resources in the hope of trying to provide support for them.Ramatex said it was forced to break its contract with Eastern Overseas and send the men home because there had been too many discrepancies between the factory’s original agreement with the agency and the current situation.A group of at least 100 Bangladeshis are expected to leave Namibia today.The rest will depart tomorrow.The company agreed to pay them one month’s salary of U$120 before they left, but said there was nothing it could do to help the men recover US$3 500 they each paid the recruiting agency Eastern Overseas, to secure work for them work at Ramatex.Ramatex General Manager Khayhiang Lim told The Namibian that the Ramatex Group had already instituted legal proceedings in Malaysia against the recruitment agency because it had failed to deliver on its promises.”We corresponded several times with the agent on the issue of unskilled workers being sent from Bangladesh.The delay by the agent in dealing with the issue of the unskilled workers, has eventually led to the cancellation of the recruitment agent,” said a statement issued by the factory yesterday.’ONLY SOLUTION’ Following riots at the factory on Thursday and again at their hostel on Friday afternoon, the company said it had decided to pay for all the Bangladeshi workers to return home as an imm
ediate solution to the problems they had encountered since their arrival.The men physically attacked their agent shortly after he arrived in Windhoek on Friday.He visited Namibia following complaints by the factory that it had been sent unskilled workers and to iron out issues related to their poor living conditions.Enraged by their treatment, the Bangladeshis mobbed Eastern Overseas Managing Director – a man known only as Alif – when he entered the property where they live, forcing the Police Unit Reservists to fire at least six rounds of live ammunition to break up the riot.Ramatex paid the agency US$580 for every person recruited.On Saturday, the factory once again enlisted the aid of the Police to tell the men that they would not be granted work permits and that they would have to go home.The factory had paid for entry visas for the men.Lim said the factory had decided to hold off on applying for work visas for the men when it was discovered that they were unskilled and following a report in The Namibian a month ago: the newspaper detailed the squalid, cramped and unhygienic conditions the men were being made to live in at three small houses across the road from the factory in Otjomuise and at a private residential property in Windhoek West which has now become known as ‘The Ramatex Hotel’.In its press statement, the Ramatex management admitted oversight on its part in not checking that the workers’ living arrangements were satisfactory.”It is not Ramatex policy to provide such living conditions for any of our employees.Admittedly the management had overlooked the accommodation issue as the accommodation service provider which Ramatex contracted was responsible for such,” it said.The men rioted at the factory on Thursday in protest against their treatment and demanded the same living conditions as other Asian workers employed by the factory.Lim said it was not possible to provide living arrangements for the men at the factory.She said being Muslims, they had different food preparation requirements.The factory paid Saujana Blossom Import and Export Namibia – a company linked to the Eastern Overseas agents and locals father and son, Willie and Desmond Gertze – US$70 per person a month to arrange their accommodation.The National Union of Namibian Workers claimed the Gertzes were related to Namibia’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, Neville Gertze.The Namibian was unable to confirm this by the time of going to press.The City of Windhoek said on Friday that it had already instituted legal action against the owner of the house Flip Bredenhann where illegal renovations had taken place to accommodate all the men.