Dhaka, March 4 (IANS) Bangladeshis returning empty-handed from Libya are uncertain about their future with one saying that they are now ‘completely helpless’.
A group of Bangladeshis arrived at the international airport here Thursday and asked the government to help them.
‘We’re now completely helpless. It’ll be very difficult for us to survive without government help,’ The Daily Star Friday quoted Mominur Rahman, one of the returnees, as saying.
Libya has been witnessing turmoil since Feb 14 after tens of thousands of people began protests against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who has been in power since the past four decades. Fierce fighting between troops loyal to Gaddafi and the pro-democracy demonstrators have left an estimated 2,000 people dead and caused about 140,000 to flee.
Ayub Hossain, who had borrowed Taka 2.2 lakh to go to Libya, said: ‘I could send only Taka 75,000 to my family in the last nine months.’
He had been hoping to work in Libya to save enough to start a small business, but that was not to be.
‘I just don’t know how I will pay off my debt,’ he told The Daily Star.
Another returnee said the current situation in Libya suggests that the country was headed towards more unrest.
‘The situation in Libya is indescribable. There is no security. Thousands of workers from different countries are waiting on the borders of the neighbouring countries to be rescued. There is no food, no shelter,’ said Amin Ullah, a worker back home.
