In the wake of malpractices in visa processing for Bangladesh workers at individual levels, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has decided to tighten the process.

From now on the registered recruiting agencies in the KSA will directly deal with the overseas recruiters in Bangladesh for hiring the workers, the Saudi embassy in Dhaka told yesterday a delegation of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) when it met the embassy high officials. Baira President MAH Salim headed the delegation.

Traditionally the employers in need of less than 15 workers used to get the visas approved from the Saudi foreign ministry for a certain group of Bangladeshi individuals living in the KSA that hire the compatriot workers.

On the other hand, the employers in need of over 15 workers would contact the Bangladeshi recruiting agencies that help the workers get their visas stamped by the Saudi embassy in Dhaka.

According to the new rules, all types of employers -- big or small will have to contact the Saudi recruiting agencies that are allowed to contact anybody but the Bangladeshi overseas employ-

ment agencies.

The employers offering jobs to more number of workers will, however, be allowed to contact the Bangladeshi agencies directly, but they are required to come to Dhaka for getting the visa stamped by the Saudi embassy here, Salim told The Daily Star.

“The Saudi government has resorted to the new visa processing, as it found the individual visa traders getting more workers hired to the KSA than the number of workers to whom visas are actually issued,” the Baira chief said.

Baira Secretary General Ali Haider Chowdhury said the individuals in connivance with the embassy or airport officials might have engaged themselves in such fraudulent practices.

“Being concerned at such malpractices, the KSA government has tightened the visa issuing process, which, I think, will ensure accountability,” said Chowdhury, who also accompanied the Bair team.

Because of such practices, many Bangladeshi workers in the KSA become illegal and undergo exploitation, said a manpower agent requesting anonymity.

There is a section of Bangladeshi nationals who compete to buy visas from the employers making the migration cost

higher, said a recruiting agent, adding that controlling the visa trading will be possible if the new process is implemented properly, he noted.

Sources in the recruiting agencies said above 60 percent of the workers go to the KSA under individual visa system. According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), over 22 lakh Bangladeshi workers went to the KSA from 1976 to 2006.

The Baira secretary said they requested the KSA embassy in Dhaka to give green signals to the workers whose visas have already been issued by the Saudi foreign ministry. Otherwise, many workers will be in trouble, he said, adding that the embassy assured them of considering the matter.

MAH Salim said they also requested the embassy to allow the Bangladeshi recruiting agencies, which have earlier been blacklisted for irregularities in the overseas employment process, to send workers to the KSA.

The embassy said they are ready to reconsider the cases of the agencies that had minor faults, but the cases of the agencies that had been found guilty for major irregularities should be dealt at foreign ministry level, Salim said.