Those Bangladeshis cannot get permission to stay in Spain legally while refugees from other countries are getting legal status there, relatives of those unfortunate people said at a press conference at the Crime Reporters Association auditorium yesterday.

They held lack of proper initiatives on the part of the Bangladeshi councillor in Spain responsible for the situation and urged the prime minister to see if anything could be done so the youths could stay there legally.

"Now the Spain government is trying to send them back to Bangladesh. We spent our last pennies to send them abroad. If they have to come back around 200 families will suffer," said Mohammed Shahabuddin at the press conference.

His younger brother Akhter Hossain, who went to Spain 17 months ago spending Tk 9 lakh and a half, is one of the inmates of the Ceuta refugee camp.

"Bangladesh Councillor Nurul Alam told the Spain government that there is no political crisis in Bangladesh. So the Spain government decided not to grant political asylum to the Bangladeshis," Shahabuddin said.

As part of the process for sending back the Bangladeshis, the Spain government has started taking signatures on a special form. Already 40 to 50 Bangladeshis have signed that form while others declined to do it as they do not want to come back pauper after spending the huge amount of money, the relatives said.

After staying at the refugee camp for more than one year, the thought of returning to Bangladesh empty-handed made them so frustrated that many are contemplating suicide, they added.

On their way to Spain through Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco, they had to spend day after day in the Sahara desert, taking scanty food and very little water, the Bangladeshi intruders told their relatives through phone and letters.

Sometimes they had to drink their own urine for want of water, they said, adding that now they are passing days half-starved at the refugee camp.