Bangladesh is hopeful of reaching an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to reopen the labour market in the gulf country during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Dubai.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali made the comment while speaking at a press conference yesterday on back-to-back visits of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and President Abdul Hamid to the UAE this month.
“We are negotiating with them over the issue. We hope that with the twin visits, the bilateral relationship will be strengthened further,” he said in reply to a question about reopening of the labour market.
The gulf country hosts over a million Bangladeshis who send billions of dollar as remittances every year. It stopped recruiting Bangladeshis on a massive scale since August 2012 following an allegation that some Bangladeshis were involved with criminal activities.
UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum invited Hasina to visit the country. She will fly to Dubai today and come back on October 27.
Hasina visited the UAE in 2009 and 2011 to attend two multilateral events and met her counterpart on the sidelines of the two events. The last bilateral visit took place in 2006.
President Abdul Hamid will fly to Dubai on October 27 to attend the 10th World Islamic Economic Forum to be held from October 28-30. The UAE vice-president and prime minister invited him.
In reply to a query, Mahmood said Bangladesh and the UAE had overcome the relationship hiccup that they had over the issue of Expo 2020.
“If the issue had not been resolved, the visits would not have taken place,” he said.
Last year, the gulf country sought Bangladesh’s support in holding the mega event – Expo 2020 – to be held in 2020 where three others were also contenders.
Dhaka pledged to support Russia in the Expo election, but considering all the factors, later Bangladesh committed to the UAE that it would support Russia in the first round and then the gulf country in the following round.
The election continued for three rounds and eventually Dubai won the election.
The minister said: “The prime minister will discuss recruitment of more skilled and semi-skilled workers with the UAE authorities as they will need a lot for the Expo 2020.”
Terrorism
A senior official of the Foreign Ministry said issues of terrorism and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant will be discussed during the visit of the prime minister.
“The top leadership of the two countries will discuss terrorism issue especially ISIL one,” he said.
A threat to peace and security in the Middle East region in particular and the whole world in general, ISIL took control on a vast area in Iraq and Syria and a US-led coalition where the UAE, one of the important partners, is fighting with them.
Agreements
Bangladesh hopes that several deals are likely to be inked during the visit.
Agreements on security cooperation, transfer of convicted persons, handover of a plot to the UAE embassy in Dhaka, foreign office consultation and a memorandum of understanding between BMET and Amala Group on recruitment of domestic workers are expected to be signed, the minister said.
“Until the agreements are signed, we don’t want to say what are deals that would be signed,” he said.
Dhaka has also proposed issuing a signed joint statement and it is under consideration of the UAE side, he added.
About setting up of a hospital and nursing institute in Rangunia by the Nahyan Foundation, the minister said the issue would be discussed during the visit.
Dhaka agreed to hand over 110 acres of land to the foundation to set up a hospital in 1984 when late UAE president Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan visited Bangladesh.
About setting up of a deep-sea port by Dubai-based DP World, the minister said some countries have made proposals and a powerful committee, headed by the principal secretary, is looking after it.
Consular access in Thailand
Bangladesh will interview 30 persons in Thailand who have claimed that they are Bangladeshis.
“We are going to send a team from the Bangladesh embassy to Thailand on October 28 to start the identification process of our own,” said Mustafa Kamal, secretary (bilateral) of the Foreign Ministry.
A total of 118 persons were found in Thai jungle in recent times and the Thai authorities are still identifying their origins, he said.
“They are kept in five or six detention centres and the embassy officials would first interview the 30 persons,” he added.