2.2m Bangladeshis Coming for Work
In this file picture, Saudi scouts in Wadi Al Dawasir offer cold drinks top Bangladeshi street cleaners. The Kingdom has opened its labor market to some 2.2 million more workers from Bangldesh. (AN file photo)
The Saudi Ministry of Labor has revealed that there are 2.2 million Bangladeshis who are presently under consideration for working visas in Saudi Arabia.
Labor Ministry spokesman Tayseer Al-Mufarrej said that the number is increasing following the recent recruitment agreement between Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh concerning both general and household workers.
“A Saudi Ministerial Committee was formed, consisting of the Labor, Interior and Foreign Ministries to monitor the measures taken to dispatch the labor force into the Kingdom.
The committee visited Bangladesh recently in order to assess and supervise all efforts being made to this end in the country for quality purposes,” said Al-Mufarrej.
He explained that the recruitment agreement signed by the two countries stipulates that the private sectors of the two countries should agree on the recruitment costs and the monthly wages of workers. “The whole process will depend on supply and demand factors, in addition to the skills and qualifications of the recruited workers and the others standards put in place by the private sector,” he added.
Al-Mufarrej said that the differences in the wages of house help are due to the nature of the work itself. Further, he said that “initial data indicates that the larger proportion of the 2.2 million applicants have already passed the legal, health and skill tests.”
He confirmed that the Saudi Ministerial Committee has followed up on the mechanisms employed to register the workers, and has already issued many smart cards used during the application process, which contains the basic information of each worker.