This question refers to several incidents involving Bangladeshi diplomats in a number of overseas missions and reported in local and international media - following which, instead of being punished, the guilty members of prestigious foreign service have been transferred to other countries as reward. This has surprised and also shocked many who expected justice done against the errant diplomats like any other government officials or employees.
Proving to be a disgrace for themselves, the Foreign Ministry and the government, nearly half a dozen diplomats had faced court or been arrested for violating diplomatic norms and code of conduct as they allegedly denied standard pay and benefits owed to their domestic aides they took along from the country during assignment. But some of the diplomats were accused of even beating and torturing the aides when they asked for the dues or wanted to go back home.
The courts in their countries of work heard the complaints and issued verdicts including the arrest of one Bangladeshi diplomat in the United States recently. He was released after Bangladesh government pleaded for his freedom and the charges against him were interpreted by his attorneys as provoked by vested interest quarters. Whatever may be the case, Bangladeshi diplomats are known for roughing up their house aides (both male and female) at times when they refuse to work long hours, sought some leisure or declined to work over pay dispute.
A domestic worker employed at the home of Kazi Anarkoly, the Deputy Consul General of the Bangladesh consulate in Los Angeles, has been missing for six months.
The US state department has been informed of the matter. Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has also been informed of the situation, Dhaka media quoted Bangladesh Embassy Press Secretary Shameem Ahmed.
The incident came soon after the arrests of Shahedul Islam, the Deputy Consul General in New York, and Bangladesh UNDP employee Hamidur Rashid, over charges related to domestic aides.
Anarkoly brought her aide Sabbir, 40, to the US in 2015 when she was appointed to the position of Deputy Consul General.The charges of physical abuse against Islam and Rashid have given rise to speculation that a similar situation existed in Anarkoly's home.
Consul General Priyatosh Saha and Anarkoly could not be reached for comment.
However, according to a consulate official, an order has been issued to transfer Anarkoly to Jakarta.
US-based diplomats from India, Indonesia, Iraq and Qatar have been accused of violence against domestic workers in recent time. The Bangladeshi diplomats have now joined the fray as well.
We are aware that people in the diplomatic service are "brown colour" men and women who consider themselves to be carrying a classic generic identity though many of them have reached to their high position coming from common families. They deserve respect and appreciation for making this possible and taking charges of working and improving Bangladesh's image internationally. But this suffers a dent when diplomats end up in courts and behind the bars on complaints from their domestic aides. This is a disgrace for the diplomats and the country they represent.
Unfortunately, Bangladeshi diplomats often step out of their routine duties and indulge in non-diplomatic activities. For example, the former Labour Counsillor at the Bangladesh Embassy in Iraq, a woman, was accused by her staffs of misdeeds and wrongdoings including claiming excessive tuition fees and related expenditures for her children, taking bribe from workers migrating from Bangladesh to Iraq and neighbouring countries and also being directly involved in manpower business.
A section of Bangladeshi media published this report and the complaint travelled to the Foreign and Manpower Ministries in Dhaka. But over a year on, newsmen scrambling and visiting the two ministries for an update on the investigation still come back without any information. Concerned people in the ministries just send them off with utter annoyance. Meanwhile, the woman was elevated to the position of acting High Commisioner in Baghdad and she was doing her non-diplomatic pursuits more intensely, it is alleged. But people in the Baghdad mission do not dare to speak against her in public or on record.
In Bangladesh missions across the world, it is alleged that the diplomatic staffs rarely consider other working in the Mission as human. They misbehave and maltreat them - only with exception to the Military Attaché at the Embassy or High Commission. Why? The officers from the defence services are viewed with fear (not respect) at the foreign missions. The others are just "servants" on hire to the diplomats in the Missions.
Officers and employees in all other government and military services, if found guilty, are booked and punished by sacking from jobs or sent on remote locations as punishment. But the diplomats are spared from this. Instead, the errant or failed diplomats are usually rewarded with reposting in better locations thus allowing them to pursue their non-diplomatic activities more intensely while neglecting assigned duties.
In diplomatic service, there is a call-back system for the under-performer and non-performers and those stepping beyond their diplomatic ambit. But we don't really know whether or how many such diplomats have been called back by the Foreign Office in recent years. This trend should come to end. Otherwise, Bangladeshi diplomats will all turn into fortune hunters and indulge in anything they need to pursue their dreams.
A diplomat should be a clean person as member of the foreign service. They represent Bangadesh abroad and work to improve its image. But if they skip their duties and run after position and money - their wives busy in shopping and lady diplomats involved in manpower business, then Bangladesh's image and honour of the government will be ruined and our pride as a nation will be melted.
Now the government is contemplating a rule to ban taking aides abroad by the diplomats. It sounds like a good step but not the solution. For that the characters, attitude and aptitude of the diplomats have to be changed - and those falling behind the drove must be punished exemplarily.
