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Manpower Export to Reopened Saudi Job Market

Govt focuses on checking those with criminal past

Rezaul Karim and Belal Hossain Biplob
The government is planning several measures to check the ones with criminal records, particularly the Rohingyas, from landing jobs in Saudi Arabia.
The move comes as the government wants to reap the benefits of reopening the Saudi manpower market for Bangladeshis.
The Middle Eastern country has recently lifted a ban on hiring Bangladeshi workers on condition that Dhaka would not send nationals with criminal records to Riyadh, said highly placed sources.
Home to over 15 lakh Bangladeshis, the KSA would prefer hiring 10,000 skilled workers from next month under 12 categories of domestic services workers such as maids, drivers, housekeepers, security guards and gardeners.
To make it happen, the two countries yesterday inked the Domestic Services Workers' Recruitment agreement.
Expatriates Welfare Secretary Khandker
Md Iftekhar Haider and Ahmed Al Fahaid, visiting deputy minister for international affairs of the Saudi labour ministry, signed the deal at the ministry.
The agreement covers areas including recruitment costs, air travel, salary, work hours, overtime, accommodation, food, workplace safety, and other admissible benefits.
Private recruiters from both the countries will hire the workers. Each worker will get a minimum salary of SR 800 |Tk 16,000] with free accommodation and food, said the secretary.
"We'll strictly monitor the recruitment process so that not a single person with a criminal record can depart Bangladesh for Saudi Arabia," added Iftekhar.
The Saudi deputy minister said the jobseekers should not let themselves exploited by any quarters as their employers will bear the recruitment and travel costs.
The Saudi government will look into any violation of workers' rights, he added.
Talking to The Daily Star, a senior foreign ministry official said the existing process of issuing nationality certificates, national/voter ID cards and passports to foreign jobseekers seems to be flawed as criminals or foreign nationals can manage those by paying money.
There should be some methods, from the grassroots up to the national level, to scrutinise strictly the travel and job documents of the workers, he added.
A jobseeker, said Iftekhar, must have a machine readable passport, smart card, and manpower clearance certificate to land a job in Saudi Arabia.
If anyone migrates to the KSA on forged documents, the public offices concerned will be held responsible for the anomalies, mentioned the expatriates welfare secretary.
MN Zeaul Alam, director general of Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP), said they were working to stop any irregularities in issuance of passports.
"We'll send a notice to all the passport offices across the country to make them aware of issuing passports to the genuine Bangladeshi nationals only," he added.
Sources said although the Rohingyas are not Bangladeshi citizens, many of them over the years have managed passports and other necessary documents for travelling and working abroad.
There are allegations that the Rohingyas with the help of local influential people, politicians, elected public representatives and officials obtained Bangladeshi passports from DIP offices in Cox's Bazar and Chittagong after paying money.
Iftekhar Haider said if any recruitment agency is found guilty of sending law-breakers or Rohingyas abroad, the government will take stern action against them.
Mohammed Abul Bashar, president
of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira), said it is not possible for the agencies to do the detailed background checks of each of the jobseekers.
"We'll only support the recruitment process of those jobseekers who have valid documents like the MRP, smart card, and manpower clearance certificate. The government has to make sure that nobody with criminal records migrates to Saudi Arabia," he added.
Meanwhile, the Saudi deputy minister in a meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said his government will make maximum efforts so that the Bangladeshi workers can go there through an easy and simple process.
The Saudi National Recruiting Committee and Baira yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding on sending workers to the KSA at the latter's city office.
On February 1, the Saudi government announced that it would hire Bangladeshi workers again after a six-year ban since 2008 over anomalies in recruitment process.