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Tk 25K for new Saudi-bound workers also

FE REPORT | June 11, 2021 00:00:00


From now on, fresh Saudi-bound workers will also get Tk 25,000 each for paying their seven-day on-arrival institutional quarantine cost.

Expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry earlier brought only the Saudi returnees, who came home on vacation, under the facility.

Both old and fresh workers will avail the aid to meet hotel quarantine expenses in the kingdom, according to a press release issued by the ministry on Thursday.

But the migrants must carry smart cards of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) or be enlisted with the Wage Earners' Welfare Board (WEWB).

The WEWB will provide the money as it operates a fund that has been set up with migrant workers' welfare fees.

Information available with airlines and the ministry concerned disclosed that each worker would need Tk 65,000 to avail quarantine facility.

Saudi Arabia earlier announced that travellers from foreign countries would require to follow mandatory quarantine once they reach there from May 20.

As instructed, those who took two shots of Covid-19 vaccine and passed at least two weeks since the second shot need not any hotel booking for quarantine.

An estimated 70,000 new workers, who were in the process of going to the Arab country, could not depart Bangladesh because of extra quarantine cost, according to manpower recruiters.

Moreover, a significant number of workers came home on vacation from the oil-rich Gulf state.

The outflow of fresh workers to Saudi Arabia remained almost halted following the new regulation by the Saudi government, the recruiters said.

Bangladesh has sent more than 13-million workers abroad since 1976. Of them, Saudi Arabia has hired about 4.2-million, statistics available with the BMET showed.

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