KUWAIT, April 24: Hundreds of Bangladeshi workers ransacked their embassy in Kuwait on Sunday to protest against not being paid by their Kuwaiti employer, police and embassy officials said. The workers broke windows of the building and of embassy cars and damaged furniture and office equipment before police arrested up to 150 to restore order while other Bangladeshis fled, police said.
Ambassador Nazrul Islam Khan told Reuters that none of the embassy staff had been hurt but two Bangladeshi civilians visiting the mission were slightly injured.
“They came to the embassy, walked in and started breaking the glass and damaging furniture and some equipment like office computers,” he added.
He said a crowd of up to 800 workers had gathered inside or near the mission in the Kuwait City suburb of Surra, but that only about 100 had started the commotion.
The workers were demanding the embassy intervene to ensure they receive up to six months in unpaid salaries, police sources said. The employer is a cleaning firm, which the ambassador said employed up to 5,000 Bangladeshis.
Khan said the embassy had helped some of the workers to collect unpaid salaries, but added that there had been no complaints for the past 2 1/2 months.
He said police were questioning a number of those involved in the incident but had released most others.
The tiny but wealthy Gulf Arab state of 2.7 million people, which controls nearly a tenth of global oil reserves, has a large foreign workforce, including some 200,000 Bangladeshis.
