Staff Correspondent

The bodies of the remaining seven Bangladeshis who died in a fire at a sofa-manufacturing factory in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will arrive in Bangladesh on Saturday, more than two and a half months after the tragedy.

Of the seven victims, five are from Naogaon and two from Natore.

A Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight, carrying the bodies is scheduled to land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 8:05am on Saturday, according to a statement from the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh.

As flights from Riyadh have remained suspended since October 10, the bodies are being transported by road to King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah before being flown to Dhaka, it said.

The five victims from Naogaon have been identified as Md Shahin, son of Majnu Rahman of Par Naogaon in Sadar upazila; M Hasibul Hasan Shuvo, son of Nazmul Huda of Dubai village in Atrai upazila; Minhaj Pramanik, son of Akkas Pramanik of Madhyaboalia village; Masidul Sardar Sajib, son of Majnu Sardar of Madhabpur village; and Sagar Ali, son of Azhar Ali of Sadhanagar village.

The other two victims are Mohammad Shamim, son of Jaker Ali of Dighirpar village in Naldanga upazila of Natore, and Md Sabbir Hossain, son of Md Tajani of Khajur village in the same upazila.

Atrai Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Moniruzzaman on Friday said, following the completion of legal formalities and DNA tests, arrangements have been made in coordination with the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh to bring the bodies home.

He said the process of providing government financial assistance to the affected families is also underway through the Wage Earners' Welfare Board.

The UNO added that the administration is in regular contact with the bereaved families.

The government will bear the costs of transporting the bodies and their burial, he said.

The fire on August 9 claimed the lives of 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers, including 12 from Naogaon. Nine of the bodies were brought home on August 27, including seven from Naogaon. The remaining seven — five from Naogaon and two from Natore — were kept in a morgue pending legal formalities and identification.

For more than two and a half months, the families of the remaining victims have been waiting to bring their loved ones home.

Along with the grief of losing family members, they are also facing mounting debts. Many had borrowed large sums of money to send their loved ones abroad in the hope of a better future. Now, they are left to cope with the loss while struggling to repay those loans.

While the return of the bodies will bring some relief, the families are facing another struggle: repaying the loans taken to send their loved ones abroad.

Hoping for a better future, many of the workers had mortgaged their ancestral homes or borrowed money at high interest rates to finance their migration. Their dreams have ended, but the debts remain.

Parveen Khatun, whose husband Sagar Ali of Sadhanagar village in Atrai was among the victims, said she sent him to Saudi Arabia just six months ago after borrowing Tk 6.5 lakh to cover the expenses.

Their only asset, the family home, is now mortgaged to a moneylender, while almost none of the loan has been repaid.

Now left to raise their two young sons alone, Parveen is struggling to cope with the loss and mounting pressure from creditors.