State Minister for Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Shofiqur Rahman Chowdhury on Tuesday said the Oman government has opened labour market in 12 categories, including physician, engineer, nurse and teacher, for Bangladeshi nationals.
"Oman government will legalize 96,000 illegal Bangladeshi workers. The country also mulls over waiving fines of illegal expatriate Bangladeshis," he said.
The minister said this while talking to journalists after the Ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman to Bangladesh Abdul Ghaffar Bin Abdul Karim Al-Bulushi paid a courtesy call on him at his office.
Shofiqur Rahman said a discussion was held about dedicating a technical training center (TTC) for Oman to provide training to workers as per the demand of the country.
Though skilled manpower gets visas from the country now, a proposal will be placed at the working committee for sending unskilled manpower as well, he said.
He said there is a possibility of holding a joint working group meeting between the two countries soon.
On October 31 in 2023, the Omani government imposed a temporary ban on visas for Bangladeshi nationals except for official purposes.