BD giving all-out effort to send back Libya returnees: Secy

Arafat Ara Bangladesh is giving all-out effort to send back the Libya returnees to the companies where they were earlier deployed, said Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan Sunday. The secretary said many companies that shut down factories during the recent Libyan unrest are also interested to take back the Bangladeshi workers to their previous jobs. More than 70,000 Bangladeshis were working in Libya when the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi regime broke out early this year. Most of them returned home, as the violence spread across the country and the situation worsened. Mr Khan said the Korean and Malaysian companies are contacting with the government to recruit the workers again to their units. Nearly 37,000 Bangladeshi workers who retuned home from Libya could not complete the tenure of their contracts, as many of them worked there only for one or two years there. Around 100 engineers have already started returning to Libya, the secretary said. He hoped that the government will be able to send back all the manpower to the oil-rich country after the unrest is fully pacified. He, however, said if the former companies make delay in taking the expatriate workers, the government will take steps to send them to other companies of the country, with a minimum migration cost. Mr Khan also said during the uprising the government brought back the workers at home within a week, considering that their life is at risk there. "We have also given financial support to the returnees initially," he added. Meanwhile, the Libya returnees have hailed the latest move and also urged the government to send them to their former work places as soon as possible. Jahangir Hossain, a Libya returnee, said he is passing a weary time, as he is yet to earn any money here for his living. He said the government should take all steps possible to send back the returnees within a short time. Earlier, Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain announced the plan to send back the Libya returnees as soon as a new democratic government starts operation in Libya following the killing of Gaddafi. An estimated 7.6 million Bangladeshis are now working abroad and most of them are in the Middle East, Malaysia and Singapore. They send home over US$11 billion a year.