Jobs for 20,000 hands in KSA in one month

In the absence of necessary preparations, the government has agreed to send only 20,000 female workers to Saudi Arabia within next one month against their requirement of 50,000.
Ahmed Alfahid, deputy minister for international affairs, the ministry of labour in Saudi Arabia, Thursday expressed his government's willingness to recruit 50,000 domestic hands from Bangladesh before Ramadan.
After a meeting with the visiting Saudi deputy labour minister, Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (EWOE) Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told reporters that although Saudi Arabia sought to recruit a large number of workers, they had decided to send only 20,000 in one month.
"The country has already prepared 30,000 visas for female workers. So if we want, we can send more workers than the target during the period," the minister said.
About 100 recruitment agencies had been selected and they had been asked for a list of 200 candidates from each to fulfil the employer's requirement, he added.
In February last, Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh to hire 12 categories of workers for housekeeping. Of them, the minimum wage for housemaids had been fixed at 800 Saudi Riyals (equivalent to Tk 16,564) each. Accommodation and meals would be provided by the employers.
Workers would get 800 Saudi Riyals as minimum wage, Mr Hossain said, adding that the amount of wages could be increased following negotiations between the two countries.
About recent human trafficking issue, the minister said they were keeping contact with other ministries concerned in this regard.
EWOE secretary Khandakar Iftekhar Haidar and director general of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) Begum Shamsun Nahar, among others, were present.
An estimated 1.5 million Bangladeshis are currently working in the KSA.
    arafat_ara@hotmail.com