Around 7,500 Bangladeshis Held in Saudi Prisons: State Minister

Bangla Press Desk: The government is working to extend the validity of Saudi visas and iqamas for expatriate Bangladeshis stranded due to the conflict in the Middle East, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed has said.

She made the remarks while speaking to journalists at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Friday morning (October 23).

The state minister also said the government was discussing rehabilitation and employment opportunities for expatriate Bangladeshis who had lost their jobs. She was at the airport to receive the body of Bangladeshi national Mohammad Shahed Ahmed, who was killed in a missile attack in Saudi Arabia.

Stating that more than four million Bangladeshis work in Saudi Arabia, Shama Obaed said the government became concerned about Bangladeshis living there whenever it received reports of war-related incidents or other accidents.

“However, we have to navigate this reality. We want the war to end so that no citizen of Bangladesh or any other country, or any person, has to fall victim to such attacks,” she said.

The state minister also revealed that around 7,500 Bangladeshis are being held in various prisons across Saudi Arabia.

Regarding the recent executions of two Bangladeshi nationals in Saudi Arabia, she said the Saudi authorities periodically send lists of prisoners and convicted individuals to Bangladesh. The government was checking whether the names of the two men appeared on those lists, she added, noting that it had not yet received further details about their cases.

The two Bangladeshis were executed by beheading. The Saudi ambassador had already been summoned for discussions, and the government had formally written to the Saudi authorities requesting copies of the court verdicts.

“Once we receive copies of the verdicts, we will be able to learn in detail what happened in those cases,” she added.

Shama Obaed further said Bangladesh needed to be informed whenever one of its citizens was convicted abroad. She urged patience while the official process continued.

She explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not handling the matter alone; the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and the Home Minister were also involved in matters concerning migrant workers and legal issues.

When a Bangladeshi mission or government ministry learns that a citizen has been convicted in another country, the government contacts the relevant authorities through official diplomatic channels. It then discusses whether the sentence can be reduced or a pardon secured, she said.

“We do not interfere in another country’s judicial system. But we can do what is necessary to save a citizen of our country,” she said, adding that the main problem in the cases of the two executed Bangladeshis was that the government had not known about them.