Saudi Arabia has banned its male citizens from marrying women from four countries — Pakistan, Bangladesh, Chad and Myanmar — a police officer said. The announcement comes as a part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to prohibit Saudi men from marrying expatriates, a subject widely debated in the Gulf nation. There is an estimated 5,00,000 women from the four countries, residing in Saudi Arabia. Mecca Police Director Assaf Al-Qurashi said additional formalities have been placed before issuing the permission for marriage w...

A Bangladeshi was injured in a love triangle row after he was stabbed by his rival in a fight in Burmah Road, Pulau Tikus, here. The 25-year-old man, who was stabbed by his Indonesian rival, was rushed to the Penang Hospital where he is reported to be stable. The drama unfolded in a room above the coffeeshop where the two men’s love interest, a 32-year-old Indonesian woman, was working. Workers in the shop heard a commotion from the room at about 8.15pm on Wednesday, and alerted the police who rushed to the scene and arrested Indonesian man ...

Hundreds of Bangladeshi construction workers have been beaten and humiliated by soldiers in Iraq after becoming dragged into their host country’s sectarian conflict, two of their colleagues said today. Some had their beards shaved off by the mainly Shiite Muslim troops after being accused of sympathising with Sunni insurgents while one of them was stripped naked, according to the men after they returned home, AFP reports. “They abducted the Bangladeshi cleric from our camp mosque last Thursday and when he was released on Saturday, you could see...

Migrant rights activists have called for abolishing sponsorship system to better protection of foreign workers from rights violations in Gulf countries. In Gulf, the sponsorship system is known as Kafala, under which employers confiscate passports of the workers and restrict their freedom to switch jobs. [caption id="attachment_7246" align="alignleft" width="300"] This file photo shows workers stand inside the Portland labour camp in an industrial area on the outskirts of Sharjah. Gulf nations have relied heavily on the supply of cheap labour...

When I was growing up outside of Bangladesh, my parents were careful to remind me that we had not become migrants and that our loyalties remained very firmly back home. (My father was a diplomat, and we roamed the world without putting down roots anywhere.) Back then, people left home for places like America, Britain and Australia, returning after many years with children who spoke heavily accented Bangla and complained about the heat. One of my distant relatives spent the entire duration of his vacation from Atlanta holed up in a giant mosquito net drinking only coconut water.