A Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia joint working group comprising representatives of labour, foreign and home affairs ministries of both the countries will be formed soon to unknot the existing loops to send Bangladeshi workforce to the oil-rich Middle Eastern country.
‘The joint working group will hold a meeting in every three months in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia in rotation to sort out the problems in sending manpower,’ the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister engineer Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain told a press briefing at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on his return from a six-day official visit to Saudi Arabia.
The minister said the joint working group would be formed with representatives of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, home affairs and foreign affairs ministries of Bangladesh and labour, internal affairs and foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia.
Besides, the Saudi Arabian government will send a delegation to Bangladesh within two months to oversee the overseas employment recruiting process in Bangladesh, the minister said.
‘The Saudi government is very cordial and sincere to take again more of our manpower and I hope we can sort out the problems within a short period,’ the minister said.
The manpower export from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia to a large extent remains suspended for about three years due to some allegations that more Bangladeshi nationals are getting involved in various criminal activities there.
Mosharraf said he held bilateral talks with Saudi labour minister Adel M Fakieh and discussed matters related to export of human resource.
The Saudi minister highly lauded hard working nature and sincerity of Bangladeshi workers there but he expressed his concern that more expatriate Bangladeshis were involved in various criminal activities in the kingdom.
Mosharraf said he explained various security measures taken by the Bangladesh government in sending workforce to foreign lands so no convicted or criminal minded people could go aboard.
‘I assured them that we have boosted up our screening system through introducing digital registration system and smart card for the intending expatriate workers,’ he said adding ‘as the digital system has been introduced now it’s very difficult for a convicted or suspicious person to get registration for going abroad.’
The Saudi labour minister has positively taken the Bangladesh government efforts and assured that he would visit Bangladesh to see the process practically, Mosharraf said.
He said he also urged the Saudi government to give a list of expatriate Bangladeshis who were being involved in criminal activities with proper evidence.
He said after getting the list Bangladesh government would return those expatriate Bangladeshi criminals or let the Saudi government take legal action as per law.
‘We cannot let few number of criminals to tarnish image of Bangladesh or to force the fate of around 20 lakh expatriate Bangladeshis living in Saudi Arabia in trouble,’ the minister said.
The minister said they gave a draft MoU to Saudi labour minister on signing a ‘framework agreement’ regarding sending Bangladeshi workforce to Saudi Arabia.