Sagar Biswas :
Saudi Arabia has lifted its “informal restriction” on Bangladesh, allowing the country to send male workers to the kingdom along with the housemaids.
The restriction has been relaxed by the Saudi authority apparently to encourage sending female workers from the country like Bangladesh. The male workers will discharge their duties under the supervision of Saudi Domestic Service, officials said on Wednesday.
Bangladesh government and the government of Saudi Arabia have already reached a consensus about the issue. The signing of agreement in this regard will take place soon after the joint working groups of both countries sit to finalise the overall recruiting process, the officials said. “From now, a female domestic help will be accompanied by a male worker, when she will go to Saudi Arabia. The male worker also can go without any cost. But he must be a nearest relation of the female worker,” Nurul Islam BSC, Minister for Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment, said.
Clarifying the stance of government, the Minister during a media briefing at the Prabashi Kalyan Bhaban yesterday said that such initiative has been taken to ensure ‘security and safety’ of Bangladeshi female workers in Saudi Arabia.
It is to be noted that Bangladesh had signed an MoU [memorandum of understanding] with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in February last year to send 2,00,000 domestic help without any cost.
In the first phase, the KSA showed interest to take 30, 000 female domestic help in June last year. But significantly, the Bangladeshi female workers showed less interest to go to KSA, even with no cost facility.
Only 20, 951 female workers registered their names till the date for going Saudi Arabia. In this situation, Bangladesh set condition to KSA that it would have take one male worker against each female domestic help.
