A migrant worker killed in an airstrike in the United Arab Emirates on the first day of the Iran war would not have stayed outside if he had known the conflict had started, his son says.
Bangladeshi Saleh Ahmed (55) was hit by debris after an Iranian missile attack while distributing drinking water in Ajman Emirate.
Speaking from Bangladesh, his son Abdul Haq told Sky News that Saleh was a hard-working man and the family’s sole breadwinner, who would not have risked his life if he had known the US-Israeli war with Iran had begun.
‘My father had gone to give water,’ said Abdul in tears. “Then an Iranian missile hit him and his car.”
Ten minutes later, Saleh died at the scene, his son said.
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Saleh Ahmed did not know the war had begun when he was killed, his family believes
Saleh lived as a non-resident in the UAE for 25 years, sending less than £500 a month to Bangladesh for his wife and four children.
His family says that this attack has taken everyone by surprise.
Asked if his father knew about the war, Abdul said, “No, he doesn’t.”
“If he had known he wouldn’t have gone like that, we are hungry people, we have nothing and our family is so big, my father certainly didn’t know about the war, otherwise he wouldn’t have gone out.
“If I had known, God willing, I wouldn’t have let him out.”
Abdul wiped away tears as he recounted his father’s ordeal
Saleh was described by his family as a hardworking man
‘You will never find friends like my father’
Five years ago, Abdul joined his father in Ajman to work for a water company.
“In childhood, I used to spend only a month or two with him. But for the last five-and-a-half years we were more like friends. Eating together and everything we did together as friends,” she said.
“Nowhere in the world can one find friends like my father.”
Saleh’s life mirrors that of the millions of South Asian migrant workers who live and work in the Middle East. Many have roles in construction, hospitality, transportation and domestic help.
Saleh sent money to Bangladesh for his wife and four children
With roots in the oil boom of the 1960s, migrant workers today are made up of workers from countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and constitute a large percentage of the overall population. Their remittances support a family of generations of households.
“In the beginning my father worked really hard and did different jobs. He worked in hotels, he washed cars, cut grass, did everything,” Abdul said.
“And for the last seven or eight years he had a good position in the water company, he did a good job, which was serving the people, delivering drinking water to the people.
“We never imagined it would happen so suddenly.”
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The body cannot be carried home for burial
Saleh’s family lives in a remote village in Sylhet, northeastern Bangladesh. He had started building a house with the money he sent. The site remains unfinished, the concrete foundation lying bare.
Abdul explains how his father did everything he could to have his own house until he died.
Abdul and his family mourn Saleh
Abdul explained that not only did Saleh support his family, but his father would gift packages of meat to friends and neighbors on Eid, give money to charity and donate money to local mosques. He had visited his family four months ago.
Saleh’s body cannot be flown home for burial until commercial flights resume due to the closure of airspace over the UAE. Abdul says the delay to be by his father’s side and laid to rest adds to the family’s grief.
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry confirmed Saleh’s death on Monday. It said the government’s top priority was to ensure the safety and security of the more than six million Bangladeshis living in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, there is no plan to relocate Bangladeshi migrant workers. The government urged its citizens in the Middle East to “be vigilant and strictly follow the guidance issued by the respective host governments”.
“I pray that everyone comes to a resolution quickly,” Abdul said, referring to the US, Israel and Iran.
“I see so many videos of people dying and I don’t want anyone else to die like my father did. I don’t want any other people to lose their parents like we lost our father.”
