About seven lakh Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia were brought under the legalisation process during amnesty period that will end on November 3, expatriates welfare and overseas employment minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said on Thursday.
About 40,000 Bangladeshi workers who were reluctant to get legalised were returning home by taking out passes, the minister said while speaking at a press conference in Probashi Kalyan Bhaban.
He said after amnesty the government would send clean and biometric data of the aspirant workers who were enlisted by the government recently to the Saudi authorities for fresh recruitment from Bangladesh.
Migration cost of the workers to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries would not be more than Tk 20,000 to 25,000 when workers would be sent from the database, the minister said.
Mosharraf mentioned that the government made a database of about 20 lakh workers for overseas employment and it would help cut migration cost and activities of the recruiting agencies.
Of the seven lakh illegal workers in Saudi Arabia who were being legalised, officials said, about 3.5 lakh workers were legalized by taking documents from Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh and another 3.5 lakh Bangladeshi workers transferred their Iqama.
As parliament passed Overseas Employment and Migrant Workers Bill, 2013 on Wednesday, the minister said the law would pave the way for bringing discipline in the country’s manpower export business.
If anyone tries to send workers with false allure and deception, he would have to face maximum 10-year imprisonment, he said.
The new law also provides seven years rigorous imprisonment and fine of Tk 300,000 for any
forgery of demand letter, visa and work permit as well as for publishing any false advertisement, the minister said.
-With New Age input
