70,000 BD workers flee workplaces in Oman

Omanese officials have said that nearly 70,000 of the total number of Bangladeshi workers in that country have 'run away' from their employers, reports bdnews24.com.

A visiting Omanese delegation gave this information to Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain at a meeting in Dhaka on Wednesday.

"The Omanese representatives said that some 70,000 Bangladeshis working in different organisations in that country had run away from their employers but could not give the reason behind their action," the minister told reporters after the meeting.

The minister, however, could not say the period over which this happened. But he felt low pay and poor working conditions might have forced the Bangladeshis to quit their workplaces.

The minister said a high-powered committee would be sent to Oman to look into the problem.

According to the ministry, about 500,000 Bangladeshi labourers work on that country.

He said that the meeting discussed the possibilities of sending more Bangladeshis to work in the construction, agriculture, fisheries and other sectors of the Middle Eastern nation.