The National Recruitment Offices of Saudi Arabia blamed the Bangladesh ministry concerned for delay in processing over 3,000 visas for housemaids already stamped by the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka, reports the Saudi Gazette on its front page.
The Bangladesh Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment responsible for the task denied its negligence and said the process is going on as per the time schedule.
The newspaper also reported quoting sources at the recruitment offices in the Eastern Province that the Bangladesh Ministry of Labour is deliberately delaying the visa processing for housemaids because it is reportedly waiting for the recruitment of male Bangladeshi workers first.
When contacted, Secretary of the Ministry Khandaker Md Iftekhar Haider said: “The number of visas is not over 3000. It is less than the newspaper mentioned.”
And the process is not being delayed. The ministry has already cleared the visa process after completing requirement of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) for immigration clearance, he said.
“It will take one or two days more to give clearance to the first batch from the BMET,” he added.
A ministry official requesting anonymity said the Ministry of Expatriates asked the mega companies of Saudi to send their copies of employment agreements as this is the first time Bangladesh is sending a large number of female domestic workers to Saudi Arabia under the agreement signed between the two countries.
“But when those mega companies sent their three-page employment agreement we found some anomalies and we returned those copies requesting for fresh copies that go by the agreement between the two countries.” he said.
And this is why, the total procedure took some time, the official added.
However, the secretary of the ministry expected that they would be able to send the first batch of housemaids to Saudi Arabia during the month of Ramadan.