Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Lebanon Abdul Motaleb Sarker, who has been recalled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, will depart Beirut on February 20th, 2020, to report back to his government.
This call back comes after the investigation of the Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh found that the allegations of irregularities and non-performance against the envoy to be true.
“The probe team, led by a senior ambassador, found the allegations against the envoy correct. Therefore, he has been recalled to the headquarters,” a highly-placed source at the Foreign Ministry told the Dhaka Tribune.
However, Ambassador Sarker has completely denied the charges against him, saying that he had been “victimized” due to his “good work creating problems for others.” (This statement seems to have become a trend lately.)
The Ambassador further insisted: “There are some unscrupulous middlemen with a political connection in Dhaka. They were not happy with my systematic work for the migrants. The future will prove that I didn’t do anything wrong. I am leaving Lebanon on February 20, 2020.”
Sources at Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry stated that the government had already proposed a Major General as the replacement for the current envoy.
His nomination is yet to be approved by the host country as there has been no serving government in Lebanon since October 2019, and the government was only just formed one month ago.
The statement by the Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh explained: “Now that a functioning government is in place in Lebanon, it is expected that the new ambassador will take charge of the troubled embassy.”
The previous ambassador to Lebanon, Gousal Azam Sarker, now Ambassador to Iran, was also recalled in July 2014 on charges of irregularities and other similar allegations, which reportedly turned out to be true.
Lebanon’s migrant population from Bangladesh does face dire conditions in Lebanon amid its segregation from the country’s labor laws, as well as the involvement of the majority of the population in domestic work and hard labor.
The human rights violations committed against this community have been the subject of multiple civil movements in Lebanon for years, including the Anti-racism Movement, KAFA, and others.
