Only son dies in Saudi Arabia, debt-ridden Barguna family uncertain about bringing body home

Photo: Collected

‘Put me in touch with my son, just once. I beg you, holding your hands and feet, put me in touch with him. I have one child; I lost my husband when he was little, and I have no one but this son. There is no one who will call me Ma. Bring my jewel and put him in my lap! O Hanifa, no one calls your mother Ma. What did you say as you left? How am I to live forgetting you?’

Mother Sahera Begum was saying these words as she wailed at her home on Sunday (11 October) morning, her heart breaking with tears. Having lost her only child, Hanifa, in Saudi Arabia, she has been left speechless. The Nalbunia area of Nishanbaria union in Taltali upazila of Barguna has grown heavy with her heart-rending lamentation and her pleas to get her child back.

Hanif (36) was the son of the late Jalal Mia of the same area. He has two children: an 11-year-old son, Md Jenayed, and a 5-year-old daughter, Mosammat Samira. Hanif lost his father when he was just two years old; his father went missing while fishing at sea.

According to the family, Hanifa (36) went to Saudi Arabia two and a half years ago through a broker, for which Tk 5.5 lakh had to be paid with borrowed money. Because of visa complications, he had been working illegally as a labourer at a stone processing factory for 2 years.

Five months ago, another Tk 4.5 lakh was paid to brokers in the hope of legalising the visa, money that had been raised through loans from various NGOs. But on 3 October Hanifa breathed his last abroad, and the family received the news of his death that same day. The family, however, has yet to learn the exact cause of death. Uncertainty has arisen over bringing Hanifa’s body home because of a shortage of money and the lack of valid documents. Having lost its only earning member, the family has now been plunged into uncertainty, spending its days in anxiety over bringing the body back. The family and relatives of the deceased have strongly urged the authorities concerned to bring Hanifa’s body back to his home quickly with government assistance.

The deceased’s wife, Kajal Akter, said in a tearful voice that she had given Tk 5.5 lakh, borrowed from others, when her husband went abroad. Later, in the hope of legalising the visa, she again gave Tk 4.5 lakh by taking loans from 6 NGOs and banks. She said she is now in no position at all to run the household with two small children, and on top of that there is a mountain of debt over her head. She also asked whose face the children would look to after her husband’s death. Her earnest appeal to the government is that her husband’s body be brought home and arrangements made for his burial, so that her son and daughter can see their father’s grave. She added that she wants nothing else from the government.

Taltali Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Atish Sarkar said the process of bringing the body home would begin once the embassy is contacted on behalf of the deceased through the family. The upazila administration will provide the affected family with the necessary assistance in this process.