Bangladesh to probe embassy riot

By Waliur Rahman
BBC News, Dhaka

The workers forced their way past security guards

The Bangladesh foreign ministry says it is sending a delegation to Kuwait after its embassy there was stormed by hundreds of Bangladeshi workers.

Foreign Minister Morshed Khan told reporters in Dhaka that the three member inquiry team would travel to the Gulf state in a couple of days.

The delegation will investigate the motives behind the incident.

Officials believe the attack was organised by cleaning workers angry that they had not been paid for months.

'Unfortunate and unprecedented'

Mr Khan said that the inquiry team would comprise representatives from the foreign ministry, home ministry and ministry of expatriates' welfare.

He described the incident as "unfortunate and unprecedented", and warned that it may have an adverse impact on the Bangladeshi labour market in Gulf countries.

Damage around the embassy was extensive

"We must go deep into the incident and see why and how it happened," Mr Khan said.

Officials say around 800 Bangladeshi workers attacked the embassy in Kuwait on Sunday, looting passports and damaging cars and windowpanes in the mission compound.

The workers, employed by a Kuwaiti cleaning company, said that they were angry over unpaid wages.

Officials said the Kuwaiti intelligence agencies are now interrogating nine Bangladeshi workers arrested in connection with the incident.

The Bangladeshi ambassador in Kuwait, Nazrul Islam Khan, said the attack must have been organised because the workers came in several buses.

Kuwait employs some 200,000 Bangladeshis, who mostly work in menial jobs.

Analysts in the region say strikes by Asian workers in protest over unpaid wages and over what they say are "inhuman working conditions" are common in Kuwait.