This is a translation version of the original video documentary which was than transcribed and translated from Bengali to English. A book with the title of History of Bangladeshis in Greater Manchester has been published and it will be distributed to the libraries, schools and universities. The interview took place on 1st July 2010, so information about his personal family information may have been changed.
8.5 Alhaj Aklas Ali
8.5.1 Life in Bangladesh:
Alhaj Aklas Ali’s was born in the village of Boruni, Bishwanath, Sylhet. He has completed primary education from “Baushi Primary School”, and then he went to “Palbari High School” and studied in that school for 1 and a half years. They had a paddy field and agricultural work.
His Father died when he was little, He used to work on a ship. His father had chances to settle in Britain but he did not stay, but people who he used to work with decided to settle in Britain.
8.5.2 Journey to the UK & Immigration:
In 1963 Mr. Ali came to Britain by using an employment voucher, he went to Sylhet to visit and he found out that people are going to Britain by voucher. He used to play football in Bangladesh and he used to come to Sylhet to play football matches, from that he got to know new friends and people from Sylhet. From Sylhet one of his friends used to work in the Dhaka British High Commission.
He went to Dhaka British High Commission to get the voucher form, he had to stand at the queue which was huge, and then after 2 days he went to the hotel because he didn’t get the form. This is because there was long queue for collecting voucher form, sometimes they would even fight on the queue. After the Fazar prayer he went to British high commission and saw 200-250 people standing on the queue, police used to control them because the people used to argue with each other. British High Commission guard wall was sooner or later broken due to the people.
Whilst these things were happening Mr. Ali had an idea that he could go inside the office because his friend worked there. Then people asked him where he was going due to them standing there for the last 3 days waiting to get inside. Then he said “my friend works there and I am going to see him”, it took him 4-5 hours to get into the office gate. Then he mentioned his friends name and managed to go in the office. Then he was confused because he didn’t know where to go, he soon saw some stairs though. He went up the stairs and meets a fair lady who was wearing a skirt and half of her hair was cut, he thought that she might be from another country.
She asked him “what do you want?” He did not understand, so he resorted to saying his friend’s name. She told him to go the 3rd floor of this building and that he’ll find him there, she also said there are 2 ladies who were the same age as her on the 3rd floor. He then went to the 3rd floor and repeated his friend’s name, and then the gentlemen asked him again what your friend’s address is.
He gave the correct answer then the gentlemen took him to his friend. When he finally found his friend asked “what are you doing here?” He told him about collecting a form voucher. While he was drinking tea his friend went to another room then came back and asked him “how many forms do you want?”
His friend gave him 3 form vouchers and his friend told him about the people who are standing outside and that they might take the form from you so be careful. He said good bye to his friend and he meet with the lady again, he found out that she was 40-45 years old, first he got scared but she can speak in Bangla too.
Mr. Ali was talking to the lady for a while; she told him be careful about the people outside and don’t tell them that you have got the voucher form. These things happened before, when he came outside the office people asked him about the form he said he did not get one. Then he went to the hotel and he discovered that he had another problem, he did not have any money to pay for the hotel or to get home.
When he came to Dhaka he thought about the possibility of getting a form, so he stayed in Dhaka for a couple of days, then he will go back to his home. Then afterwards he thought there will be someone from Sylhet at the train station waiting for him. He went to the train station and started looking for someone from Sylhet, and then he noticed that someone touched on his shoulder and it turned out to be his niece’s husband.
He asked about the family and how they were keeping, he then asked his niece’s husband which hotel are you in. Then his niece came to hotel and asked when is he going to home? Then he told about everything including the hotel, money and why he went to the train station. Then his niece and her husband took him to the train station and they said their goodbyes. Also they pay for the bills of the hotel. After he came to village he told his brother about the form, hotel and everything.
He gave one (1) voucher form to his next door neighbour who was a poor man but they knew someone who came to Britain by cheating so he did not come to Britain. He gave another form to one of his friend he used to contact. He went to the agency with his form and they sorted out everything, and they called to get the main voucher but Mr. Sad Miah who used to work in the agency was ill and he went to his village. Mr. Aklas Ali was worried that there was a possibility of him not going to Britain.
Then he went to Dhaka to see Chuto Miah for help who is from Sylhet, Mr. Chuto Miah sorted things out for him then he went to Chittagong. After few days Mr. Ali went to Chuto Miah’s house and told his wife everything and she said he didn’t mention anything about you at home.
Then he went back where he used to stay and found out where he can get the voucher to go to Britain. There was a long queue so he went back. He went back to his friend; he told everything to the person who was at the office gate. He asked are you here with any agency and he said no and he told him to sit and wait. Then he came back with some papers and asks his name, father’s name and what village he came from, this was all written down on the paper then he went off again.
He came back and said he had given all the details to someone and that certain someone will call you. He was waiting but no one came, Bangladeshi people were walking past but he did not say anything. After a while a fair lady came and asked him how long he has been waiting, he said “I don’t know exactly but roughly 2 and half hours”. She said “my God!” Then she went to next room and called him to follow.
She told him to sit and asked his name, date of birth, address and after that she gave him a Visa. He was really happy and went home with his Visa; he booked his ticket from travel agency in Sylhet for British Airways. It was costs him 15 hundred taka. He spent all the money from his savings and his brother sold his Paddy field for his brother to buy suits and other special things. Everyone came to Mr. Ali’s house to say goodbye to his wife’s family, friends and his relatives.
He came to Heathrow by British Airways, at that time he was 25 years old. No one came to Heathrow to receive him because he didn’t let anyone know that his is coming to Britain but one of his cousin lives in Britain and Mr. Ali has his address from Bangladesh. He stayed in London and lived in someone’s house that he knows.
8.5.3 Life in the UK:
That time there wasn’t many good facilities for telephone. He stayed in London for 12 weeks and looked for a job; he did not find any jobs there so he went to Yorkshire in Leeds to his friend’s house. The reason he came to Leeds was to find his nephew, he knows that his nephew lives in this area and he is an Association chairperson for this area, also he is the community chairmen for the Mosque. His nephew came to Britain when he was 10 years old. He came to Britain a lot earlier than Mr. Ali came.
8.5.4 Employment:
Mr. Ali’s first job in Britain was in a factory in Mossley. In that factory they used to do wool and cotton work. As a learner he used to do 12 hours shifts 5 days a week and on Saturday 4 hours, including overtime, his wages were 7 pound for the first week. He worked there for 3 months. Then he found another job in a factory which was much closed to his home where he used to live. He went there because it is near and good wages. The factories name was John King Foundry, in that factory he used to do cutting work and his wages were 14 pound per week.
He worked there for 5 years and during that time he got himself a British citizenship. When he came back from Bangladesh he started working again in John Kings Foundry factory. The reason he found the job again was due to the fact that the manager used to like his work very much. He used to do overtime because the manager used to offer it to him every time. He worked in that factory for 3 and half years.
Then he found another job in an iron factory, 12 hours shifts 5 nights including bonus, he used to get 25 pound per week. After 5 years working he went to Bangladesh and stayed there for 4 and half months and then came back to Britain. Then he started work in Leeds in a Yorkshire foundry. That was a metal factory and they used to make lorry, car engines and train parts.
He worked there for 5-6 years and then went back to Bangladesh for the 3rd time. When he came back from Bangladesh he found another job in a glass factory in Leeds and it was near the Yorkshire factory. He used to do 8 hours shifts and they had over time facilities. He used to get 60-70 pounds per week because if anything was urgent then he used to take day off otherwise he used to work 7 days a week.
During Bank holidays or other holidays he used to tell his manager that he wanted to keep on working. Every time he used to do over time job. After that he went to another metal factory which was in the same area, the factories name was Catton factory and he worked there for a year and a half. He spends his work life in a factory in Britain.
In 1990 he went to Bangladesh, when he came back to Britain he noticed that for VAT purpose the factory job is not making good business and there were not many vacancies. They used to fill up forms for the factories but they didn’t get the job. Then he came to Hyde.
He also said he used to work as a supervisor in the John King factory. His duties were to tell the workers what time they come in for work, what are they doing, how they have to do the work and people who was working over time. During the work at the factory he had friends and out of them he used to talk about one of his friend from Africa. He used to get 1 hour lunch break. Some people’s jobs were less dangerous so they used to go to canteen to have lunch.
8.5.5 Housing:
Within 5 years in Britain he bought 6 bedroom house for 500 pounds, in total he bought the house for 5 and half thousand pounds. Mortgage was 10 pound per week. In that house he had 2 kitchens, 1 sitting and dining room.
He also said that during that time they didn’t used to have toilets inside the house, they used to use the toilet outside of their house. They used to go to public bath to have bath because they didn’t have a bath inside their house. They did not have any radiator facilities also, he used to go to town for shopping and there was one grocery shop in the town. He didn’t face any problems with speaking English during the work at the factory.
8.5.6 Social & Family:
In 1968-1969 he went to Bangladesh to see his family and relatives. He stayed there for 5 and half months and then came back to Britain because of his house. When he first came to Britain his eldest son was 2 and half years old and his wife was pregnant. After 12 days of coming back to Britain his 2nd son was born.
He got married before he came to Britain and his wife and children were in Bangladesh. The reason he came to Britain is to work and to establish himself. In 1986 Mr. Ali’s wife and 5 sons came to Britain but his eldest 2 son’s got married in Bangladesh and they continued to live in Bangladesh with their family. Sometimes they come to Britain to see their father and also Mr. Ali goes to Bangladesh to see his son’s families and relatives.
In Britain his 2 sons work in factories and 1 son works as a waiter. In 2006 he went to Makkah to do his Hajj. He had heart problem now his recovered from that but now he has illness called arthritis.
8.5.7 Conclusion:
He thanks to Allah and said he is really happy in personal and family life because he came to Britain. He thinks he have this illness because of his work at the factory. The Doctors did examinations and they said they found bruises on his feet. During the work in the factory they used to wear metal boot. He also said if anything that weighed 10 kg had fall on his feet nothing will happened to his feet.
When they used to go outside of the factory for a walk the boots would make a sound like horse shoes, He has bruises on his feet because of wearing safety boots. At the moment he is retired and has health issues but still his working for the community. He is the member of the Bangladesh Welfare Association and Hyde Jameh Mosque. Then he said he enjoys living in Hyde now and is happy with his family.