Staff Reporter :
Some restaurants, owned by foreigners, in city’s posh residential areas including Gulshan, Banani and Uttara, employed a good number of foreign nationals without approval of the relevant authorities. They also serve alcohol without having approval of concerned authorities.
The foreign nationals, who work in these restaurants, do not have any work permit. They come to Bangladesh as tourists and continue to over stay even after expiry of their visa time limit. These restaurants also serve alcohol to customers both foreign and local without having bar licenses, police sources said.
Board of Investment (BoI), which give work permit to the foreigners in Bangladesh, however, failed
to give the exact number of foreign nationals working in such restaurants.
Banani police in their recent raids at some restaurants found many foreign nationals working in these restaurants without having work permits.
Admitting the matter, Alamgir Mostafa, a sub-inspector of Banani Police, told The New Nation yesterday, “We found many illegal foreign workers along with huge quantity of foreign liquor during our raids at Pyongyang Restaurant and Chun-Tai-Ko.”
Pyongyang Restaurant recruited a total of 10 North Korean nationals who don’t have any work permit. Both the restaurants were serving liquor but they do not have any bar license, Mostafa added.
Responding to a question of the availability of liquor, he said, ”It is a matter for the Narcotics Department to take necessary action.”
Talking to this correspondent, Ryang Sun Hwa, Managing Director of the Pyongyang Restaurant said that 11 North Korean citizens were hired by the restaurant.
When asked whether the foreign workers employed at her restaurant have work permit, she fumbled and avoided and failed to give any direct reply.
Officials of Board of Investment (BoI) said that foreign nationals arriving Bangladesh on tourists visa have found jobs in those restaurants.
Dr. Khandokar Azizul Islam (Director) of the BoI told The New Nation on Tuesday that Pyongyang Restaurant got a licence for two of its partners having work permit but there is no work permit for any of its worker.
Sources of Special Branch (SB) of Police said, about 20 lakh foreign workers are working in various service and industrial sectors in Bangladesh.
