Bangladeshi expatriates in the UAE are gripped with anxiety as violent clashes between protesters and police continue to escalate back home. The situation has been exacerbated by widespread communication disruptions, including a nationwide internet shutdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no way we can reach our families,\u201d worried expats told Khaleej Times on Friday. As the unofficial death toll from the ongoing student protests reached 50, according to an AFP count from hospitals nationwide, telecom links have been severely disrupted, and television news channels have gone offline. Overseas phone calls and internet communications have been cut off, while several Bangladeshi news websites and their social media accounts have been inactive.<\/p>\n
Akram Hassan, a 28-year-old resident of Sharjah, has been trying incessantly to contact his family in Bangladesh. \u201cThe internet was very slow over the last four days, and I could barely get in touch. However, from yesterday morning, it was completely shut down, and I don\u2019t know what condition my family is in,\u201d said Hassan, who hails from Feni town. \u201cThe situation in our country is dire \u2014 and what\u2019s worse is that I can\u2019t even call my family directly because connectivity has been cut off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bangladeshi government has not addressed the communication blackout, but police in Dhaka have imposed an indefinite ban on all public gatherings and processions. The unrest deemed the worst Bangladesh has seen in years, stems from student demands to scrap the government\u2019s preferential hiring rules for civil service jobs. Analysts suggest that economic woes are further fueling the anger.<\/p>\n
Altaf Hussain, a 40-year-old expat living in Dubai, expressed his deep concern. \u201cMy family didn\u2019t have enough food supplies at home, and I have no idea how they are coping without adequate provisions,\u201d said Hussain, a printing and advertising executive in Deira. He finally reached his wife on Thursday morning after nearly five days of failed attempts. \u201cShe was explaining the situation in Dhaka. I instructed her to obtain essentials from a relative\u2019s store nearby. Since the internet was cut off at the same time, I\u2019m deeply concerned about my children and family. I\u2019m also uncertain about how many supplies they have at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, Ashraful Islam in Jebel Ali has not been able to speak to his family for days. \u201cThe last update I received was about escalating clashes that led to two deaths in our city. I am extremely worried about my family\u2019s safety and well-being,\u201d said Islam, a 25-year-old expat from Chittagong, Bangladesh. \u201cWe\u2019re in a critical situation, and this silence, coupled with the inability to contact my loved ones, is frightening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangladeshi expats in the UAE are anxious over violent protests and communication disruptions back home, struggling to contact their families amidst escalating clashes, food shortages, and internet shutdowns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":411,"featured_media":22279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1146,12673,12674,5081,12672],"class_list":["post-22261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-arab-emirates","tag-bangladesh-protests","tag-communication-disruptions","tag-expatriate-concerns","tag-food-shortages","tag-safety-fears"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/411"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}