Thrust on transparency in sending workers to KSA

The government has taken some measures to ensure transparency in each step of the process of exporting manpower to Saudi Arabia so that the flow to the oil-rich country remains uninterrupted in future.

The KSA suspended manpower import from Bangladesh in 2008 on the back of an escalation in anomalies in recruitment process and involvement of Bangladeshi workers in criminal activities within Saudi Arabia. After long diplomatic efforts, Bangladesh's biggest labour market was recently reopened on February 1.

This time all stakeholders, especially the government agencies concerned, seem to be very cautious and serious to properly meet the guidelines and regulations in sending workers to the KSA to ensure the optimum utilisation of the golden opportunity of exporting bulk volume workers to the Gulf country.

The government will put its best efforts behind regaining the confidence of the country that has traditionally been its biggest manpower market, through strengthening bilateral ties to keep labour export uninterrupted, sources at the Ministry of Labour said.

While talking to UNB, Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engir Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said the government would be able to send 0.2-0.25 million workers to the Middle-East country as the KSA is going to build six mega cities.  "If we'll are able to maintain the good relations with Saudi Arabia, we would be able to send more workers as per their demand in the coming years. We hope the labour market will remain open for us for a long time. We'll do what is needed to maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia," he added.

He said no recruiting agency would take a single penny from the workers as all the expenditures will be met by the employer itself. "If we get evidence that any recruiting agency is charging money, license of the agency concerned will be cancelled and the deposited money will be confiscated," he added.