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Max Management and Services, a human resource management and placement organisation, has allegedly cheated and held hostage several hundred fortune seekers using Jashore Technical Training Centre (TTC).
It held probashi fairs in the government TTC and allured participants of sending them to Saudi Arabia. Taking after a handsome amount of money, the job seekers were taken to the Middle East country and held them hostage there by taking their passports.
Many victims were arrested by Saudi police and landed in jails. After serving in jails, many victims returned home.
One of them is Abul Hasan who filed a case against the authorities of Max Management and Services with Human Trafficking Prevention and Suppression Tribunal, Dhaka on Tuesday.
The court ordered Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI)to look into it.
Mohammad Sazzad Hossain Bhuyain, principal of the centre, told the Daily Sun that they allowed the Max Management and Services to use their centre to hold a job fair. “We do not know anything more. If the fortune seekers are cheated, the Max Management and Services is responsible for it,” he said.
Chairman of Max Management and Services Mahfuzur Rahman could not be contacted despite several attempts. According to Abul Hasan, son of Abdur Razzak of Keshabpur in Jashore, seeing a circular of job fair (probashi mela) at the TTC, he among many fortune seekers participated in the fair on the TTC premises on 4 October 2021.
In the fair, senior officers of district administration, the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, the centre authorities and Max Management and Services were present.
On the day, he and a big number of fortune seekers were selected by the Max Management for sending to Saudi Arabia I the name of giving them jobs as cleaners.
“The Max Management took our passports and trained us for three days in the centre to develop our skilled,” he said. “At first, we were assured of sending to the Middle East country for Tk 1.65 lakh against each, but later, Tk 2.05 lakh was taken from each except medical charge,” he said.
“On 31 January 2022, I and 29 others were sent to the Saudi in a flight. We were taken to a camp at sector no. 16 in Riyadh of Saudi where the men of the Max Management took our passports,” he said. “We were held hostage for about three months in the camp where several hundred fortune seekers were kept in the same way,” said Abul Hasan.
“The cohorts of Chairman of Max Management Mahfuzur carried out tortures on them and threatened of selling them,” said the victim. When most of the victims began shouting for release and work from the Max Management, its men forcibly took signatures on final release papers and filed a case against them, stating the contract was cancelled.
Later, police of the foreign country arrested Abul Hasan and many others from different parts of the country and landed in jails. After suffering in a jail for about two months, he was released and he returned home with the help of Bangladesh Embassy in Saudi on 1 July 2023.
After returning, the victim contacted the office of the Max Management for getting his money back, but its authorities paid no heed rather threatened.
He said that the camp where they were held hostage has about 15 one to two storey buildings. The Max Management kept fortune seekers from Bangladesh in about eight buildings. Jubayed Ali Pathan, another victim, told the Daily Sun that several hundred fortune seekers were taken to the Middle East country through probashi mela held at Jashore Technical Training Centre.
He said that he met hundreds of Bangladeshis in the camp in Riyadh. “We were held hostage after taking our passports. We were also tortured,” he said, adding that he returned home after suffering in jail.
Golam Rasul, another victim, told the Daily Sun that like others, he paid Tk 2.05 lakh to the Max Management except the medical test charge.
He also said that several hundred fortune seekers were cheated and held hostage. “I returned home after suffering in a jail. Still, many fortune seekers are under the clutch of the Max Management while many are in jails,” he said.