Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that the government is exploring and sending workers to new, alternative labour markets as the Middle East, driven by its oil-based economy, might not remain the same due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
"New labour markets are being explored through the [Bangladesh] embassies in this regard.
“Although it was not possible under the present situation to send labourers temporarily to South East Asian countries including South Korea and Singapore, sending workers to the Middle East countries has resumed at a desired level," she told the parliament, reports media.
The prime minister said this while responding to Jatiya Party (JaPa) MP Shamim Haider Patwary during her question-answer session in the House on Wednesday.
Sheikh Hasina also said the government has taken various measures to send back Bangladeshi expatriates by creating new employment opportunities for those who have lost their jobs abroad and failed to go back to their destination of jobs as they got stuck in Bangladesh due Covid-19.
The prime minister said the Foreign Ministry is in touch with the foreign ministries of the countries which recruit foreign workers.
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"Three points are getting importance in this regard – ensuring minimum food and health facilities of the terminated expatriates, facilitating the return of those lost jobs with all benefits and six months’ salaries, and requesting the destination countries for creating Covid-19 recovery and response fund for creating jobs and setting up of small industries in those countries," the premier added.
She, commenting on alternative labour markets, said that a total of 50 Bangladeshi workers got work visas from Romania in last year’s October and the process of procuring 260 more work visas is in the works.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also told the parliament that for the first time ever, 240 skilled workers were sent to Uzbekistan on November 7, 2020.
They are working under an engineering project, she added
Also, as many as 648 Bangladeshis will be sent to Uzbekistan while efforts are on to export manpower to other sectors of the respective country.
The premier also said that new labour markets have been created for Bangladeshi workers in Africa, especially in Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, and Libya.
