Bangladeshi workers return home

Many Bangladeshis say they are poorly paid

More than 200 Bangladeshi workers have been sent home over the past few days from Kuwait following a major strike, deported workers have told the BBC.

Hundreds of arrests were made after violence broke out at a protest earlier in the week.

Deported cleaners and rubbish workers returning to Dhaka say that they were harshly treated by the Kuwaiti authorities for joining the strike.

Kuwait's state news agency has reported that workers' rights were violated.

'Tied up'

Those returning to Bangladesh had a long list of grievances over pay and conditions of service and some gave the BBC harrowing descriptions of their ordeal at the hands of the authorities.

Some protesters were arrested by the authorities

"People were screaming, and wailing, in pain but no-one was paying any attention to them," said Mahmud Kamal who was deported with 57 other workers and arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday.

"In the middle of all of the chaos, many were asking for some water... they tied up our hands and then dragged us into the trucks.

"We were kept inside for about half-an-hour and then they brought us out again. And then they left us there - standing - out in the open, tied up in pairs for the whole night.

"We didn't have any shoes - some of us were wearing just lunghis or a T-shirt. We couldn't even bring back anything to wear," he said.

On Monday night Bangladeshi workers protested in large numbers at two sites where they are housed outside Kuwait City.

One of the demonstrations is reported to have turned violent, with workers smashing windows, vandalising cars and clashing with the police - who moved in with tear gas and clubs.

Several hundred of the demonstrators were arrested.

Around 200 have now been sent back to Bangladesh, and more of those allegedly involved in the violence are expected to follow.

Correspondents say that the Kuwaiti government is now reported to have acknowledged that abuses by employers were responsible for the strike in the first place.

The state news agency was quoted as saying that there had been grave violations of workers' rights.

Other reports from Kuwait suggest that some of the Bangladeshis have now gone back to work.