Staff Reporter :
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has temporarily suspended recruitment visas of single male domestic Bangladeshi workers.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Development has asked recruiting agencies to search for workers of other nationalities through the Mosaned website.
The permission to bring male domestic workers from other countries is still subject to recruitment controls and the marital status of the applicant.
The ministry spokesman, Khalid Aba Al-Khail, said the recruitment of single Bangladeshi males to work as household workers by single men and women is temporarily suspended to give priority to other needed groups. “Agencies were given the option of recruiting from other countries due to non-availability of visas from Bangladesh.”
Last year, the ministry permitted the recruitment of male and female Bangladeshi domestic workers once again after the practice had been suspended for nearly eight years. Earlier on June 6, Saudi Arabia expressed its interest to recruit some five lakh more manpower from Bangladesh during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s five-day official visit there at the invitation of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. According to Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister sources, Bangladesh sent 108,383 workers to Saudi Arabia from January 2015 to May 2016.
