NEWS report said the government of Saudi Arabia has decided to lift the ban on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers after at least seven years of such ban on recruitment of male workers. The Saudi government imposed the ban in 2008 blaming malpractices in recruitment process by private manpower agencies here. This time not only the Kingdom has opened the door to Bangladeshi workers, it has also offered cost free recruitment meaning that job-seekers will not have to pay anymore private recruitment agencies for visa that may come from Saudi employers. Now Bangladesh must strictly monitor the recruitment process while taking full advantage to it. The government of Saudi Arabia is very close to our heart as the custodian of the two Holy Mosques and as a big employer of Bangladeshi workers that greatly contributed to reducing poverty in the country. We appreciate the decision of the Saudi government and thank King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud for ending the deprivation of Bangladeshi workers who were highly frustrated by the ban. His offer to make visa free from cost will also protect poor workers from being cheated by manpower agencies. It is understood that the decisions to open recruitment of workers again has come following the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia in June and we also hope that Bangladesh may benefit in many other ways. Particularly, we believe that Saudi government will also take steps to end harassment of Bangladeshi workers by employers in many cases. Saudi Arabia is now home to 13 lakh Bangladeshi workers, besides handful of female workers; many of whom are however failing to adjust with the life style of Saudi society and occasionally returning home. Official data showed that a total of 1.32 lakh workers went to Saudi Arabia in a year in 2008 before the recruitment was stopped. The number then dropped to 14,666 in 2009 and the slum further continued. We hope that the resumption of recruitment will bring boost to Bangladesh’s manpower export to the Kingdom where Bangladeshi workers reportedly work in 32 categories of jobs spreading all over the country. But what seems to be worrying is that the fall in oil price in the global market has hit the Saudi construction industry all the more and some news reports said a number of big employers are even failing to regularly pay workers forcing many to live in severe hardship. The war in Iraq and Syria has forced several million refugees to take shelter in the Kingdom forcing the switching of a sizable part of budget to rehabilitating the refugees. Consequently, remittance from Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh has drastically declined last year and the trend continues. Nonetheless, the opening of the Saudi labour market has come as a big relief to Bangladesh and we hope that the Saudi economy will revive soon to make it the best working place for Bangladeshi nationals in the Middle East.
