Muheed Jeeran
International Human Rights Activist
11 November 2021
* He has almost forgotten his native Bengali language and No educational knowledge too
I was approached by a Bangladeshi man known as Mr Hussain two weeks ago to seek my support to get the legal status to live his life in Sri Lanka. It's an emotional story of him and I decided to stand for this little family's human rights as we all born to enjoy our freedom to live. Also I decided not to take a single penny from this poor family to my service.
Hussain went to Saudi Arabia from Bangladesh on 2003 as a driver. While he was working in KSA he found his love from a Sri Lankan domestic maid known Jumaana who have become his life partner later.
in 2008, Jumana returned to Sri Lanka and 6 months later Hussain too followed her to Sri Lanka on a visit visa and reached Jumana's home in Amapara District. Later they both got married in Sri Lanka. Thereafter Hussain extended his visa to spouse category visa for 1 year. After one year later his visa was about expire and also his passport too. Therefore he decided to go back home in Bangladesh and come back with a new passport. He prepared everything to go back to Bangladesh but his mother in law tore his air ticket as she thought he won't come back if he went back to Bangladesh. Thereafter he has decided to stay back without renewing his passport and Visa. He was in touch with his family back home by phone for sometimes but one day he lost his contact book. Thereafter he lost his touch with his family for over 12 years as a result he lost his touch from the native language too. His home town is in a very rural area of Bangladesh.
He was working so hard to support his wife's family in Ampara as his wife is having 5 younger sisters. So he had a big responsibility to give them in marriage. He worked as a labourer in a vegetable supplying lorry and also in paddy field. Somehow he managed to support three sister in laws to get married and two more are at home to be married. His 13 years of married life he is having 3 children and living a very happy life. His third child had yellow fever during the birth that made the child's learning capability is very slow.
About 2 months ago there was a dispute between his father in law and the neighbouring house. However after some days later various police units have began to visit his home on the basis of a complaint by someone that Hussain is an illegal immigrant living in that area. However Hussain has no idea about the complainer.
Police was not harsh on him as they understood that his family life and the interest of his children. But police was compel to put more pressure on his family due to complainant's pressure and Hussain has no way to continue to live there. Thereafter Hussain's wife decided to send him to Bangladesh. Hussain has no document except his long time back expired passport. They borrowed some money on credit to going back to Bangladesh but after preparing everything including emergency travel document and air ticket. However he has to cancel his journey as he might be facing a ban on coming back due to failure of extending his visa for long time. All the money they borrowed too finished after people who supported to arrange his journey too had some fees. Thereafter Hussain was approached my help and I began to work on his matter by talking to relevant authorities.
I was told by his wife that the police wanted her husband to visit the police by putting the pressure on her. Hussain is not living in his home any longer. Law enforcement must understand that we must apply common sense sometimes in order to treat some cases on an humanitarian basis too. I discussed with the department of Immigration and Emigration and they are willing corporate to help this man to get back to his family. However we need submit some paper work and has to pay a big penalty fee which is a very big amount. Also he has to go back to Bangladesh to prepare his new passport and come back to Sri Lanka which is also going to cost a lot to them but I can see that this family is not in a position to afford this. I hope some well wishers will support this family to resolve this unfortunate problem.
Also some top most senior police officers too assured me to help me on an humanitarian basis to help this poor family to get reunited. I hope I can complete this mission very successfully. One last thing Hussain told me that he worried about his two remaining sister in laws too as that he has a responsibility to support them as a main bread winner of the family.
MuheedJeeran
International Human Rights Activist
11 November 2021
0 Comments