Monday, Feb 24, 2014
Al Ain: With Dh3.8 million of blood money still stuck in the system for the families of 19 Bangladeshi workers who died in February 2013 when their minibus overturned after a collision with a truck, one relative has said he has now won his court battle. An Al Ain court has ordered the lorry driver’s insurance company to pay Dh200,000 blood money to the family of Mohammad Hashim, 45, a victim of the ill-fated workers’ bus that was crushed underneath the truck carrying sand and construction material on February 4. An Egyptian and an Indian were also killed in the accident.
“I had a favourable decision on February 17,” said Mohammad Kamal Al Deen, Hashim’s brother-in-law.
The case of 15 victims is being collectively pursued by the Bangladeshi Embassy. Despite a court order instructing the insurance company to pay Dh200,000 per worker in blood money last September the victims’ families have not yet received a dirham. Most of them have been living on charity after losing their breadwinners, they told Gulf News earlier this month.
Al Deen told Gulf News on Sunday that he had filed another case demanding damages as Hashim’s death had had a lasting impact on his family’s mental and financial well-being. The court has asked him to produce at least two witnesses on March 11 to testify that Hashim’s family is suffering, he said.
“Apart from me, two of Hashim’s close relatives are in the UAE and they are willing to testify,” said Al Deen who works in Al Ain.
Misery
The Bangladeshi Embassy in the UAE has been cooperating but it is a lengthy process, causing more misery for the families, he said.
Latiful Haq Kazmi, a counsellor at the Bangladesh Embassy in Abu Dhabi, said nothing had yet been received from the insurance company. “We will contact the company in a few days after obtaining a letter from the court,” he said, expressing displeasure at the delay.
The employers of the 19 victims have given Dh68,000, based on the victims’ salaries that ranged between Dh500 to Dh2,500.
This amount has been sent to Bangladesh but also has not yet been paid to the victims’ families as the authorities are waiting for the blood money. “Our intentions are to make the full payments soon,” he added.
“This amount has been sent to the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment in Dhaka and will be distributed as per Sharia among the victims’ families,” he said.
Each victim, as per UAE law, has to get Dh200,000 per head as blood money from the company that insured the truck, said the counsellor.
The truck, according to the police, veered off the road and collided with the bus carrying the workers at 7.45am. All the victims were crushed under the tonnes of concrete carried by the truck.
By Aftab Kazmi Bureau Chief
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
