From now on, Saudi Arabia will recruit workers from Bangladesh with free of cost.
Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain made the disclosure in a press briefing at the secretariat on Monday morning.
The decision was made at a meeting with the Saudi delegation over recruitment of Bangladeshi workers.
The minister said: “The workers have to spend maximum Tk20, 000 for passport processing and other activities inside the country. The employers will bear the cost of migration process.”
Asked about the wage of the workers, he said: “We are yet to finalise the matter. But they will get at least 1500 riyal (Tk30, 000).”
“Anyone convicted in visa trading will be sentenced to 15 years in jail as per Saudi law," the minister added.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia, the biggest labour market for Bangladesh, lifted the ban on recruitment of workers from Bangladesh, thus opening the Bangladeshi labour market in the realm after six years on February 1.
The Saudi government stopped hiring Bangladeshi workers in 2008. About two million Bangladeshis, who are working in the kingdom, send billions of dollars in remittance annually.