No Longer Banned, Bangladeshi Workers Now Allowed in Saudi

Dhaka thanks the Saudi King for lifting the ban on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers.

Saudi Arabia Ministry of Labor and Social Development lifts ban on the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers. (Photo: iStockphoto)

In what comes as a welcome news for a number of Bangladeshi workers, the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Labor and Social Development lifted the ban on their recruitment.

This ban, which excluded Bangladeshi domestic help, was in effect for the last six years.

Bangladesh Ambassador Golam Moshi expressed his gratitude to the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, saying it would create more employment opportunities for all categories of Bangladeshi people including skilled, unskilled and professional workers.

However, the recruitment channels will resume subsequent to a meeting between Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to be held in June.

Many Bangladeshi women work in Saudi in various capacities. (Photo: iStockphoto)

At present, there are around 60,000 women employed as domestic help in the Kingdom out of a total of 1.3 million workers in Saudi, said an official while adding that about 6,000 female workers arrive in the Kingdom every month on an average.

The visas for male workers were issued from June and, since then, Saudi has been witnessing regular influx of Bangladeshi workers. Currently, these workers work across 48 categories.

In January, Bangladesh Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Nurul Islam and Minister of Labor Mufrej Al-Haqabani took a call on increasing the number of household maids.

The ministers have also reached a mutual agreement to enhance co-operation in the manpower sector. This is to be done by promoting skills training, reducing migration costs and increasing the number of male and female workers.

(Source: Arab News)