The government of Saudi Arabia will begin accepting vaccinated foreigners wanting to make the umrah pilgrimage after 18 months of keeping the border sealed to boost the economy hit by the pandemic. The kingdom has set to reopen the economy step by step, while many nations are normalising their economies by withdrawing restrictions and some others imposing fresh restrictions based on the respective Covid-19 infection rates. In contrast, vaccination rate in Bangladesh is still poor and the Covid-19 infection rate high with over 10,000 infections recorded every day. However vaccination of migrant workers is a priority in the country
The Covid-19 pandemic hugely disrupted Muslim pilgrimages, which are usually key revenue earners for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia that earns $12 billion annually. Last month around 60,000 inoculated residents were allowed to take part in a scaled down annual hajj. The kingdom is slowly opening up, and has started welcoming vaccinated foreign tourists since August 1. Foreign pilgrims must be immunised with a Saudi-recognised vaccine — Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson — and must agree to undergo quarantine if necessary. Malaysia will also ease coronavirus curbs for fully vaccinated people in some of its states comprising about half the country, according to reports.
As the economies of Malaysia and KSA are reopening, the migrant worker exporting countries will restart their competition to occupy these labour markets. Bangladeshi migrant workers are in large numbers in both the countries. Dhaka should gear up efforts to resume manpower export to these labour markets as they reopen.
