The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment yesterday asked the Bangladesh Embassy in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to take-up the issue of detaining and deporting Bangladeshi workers and businessmen from the country, with the concerned government authorities immediately.

The Ministry gave the directives following press reports on reported harassment of the Bangladeshi workers by the KSA law enforcing agencies.

KSA is a big manpower market for Bangladesh and a major part of Bangladesh's foreign exchange earnings from manpower export comes from the oil rich country.

Reports from KSA say that law-enforcing agencies have detained more than five hundred workers in the last two weeks. They have deported more than a hundred Bangladeshi workers and the remaining detained workers are waiting or the same fate, according to the reports.

The KSA police alleged that the e Bangladeshi workers were engaging themselves in business illegally instead of working inline with their work permits. They engaged themselves in different business including recycling of metal. This has allegedly increased theft in KSA and many people lost their metallic materials including doors and windows.

Nearly 15 lakh Bangladeshis are now working in KSA. Last year nearly 2.04 lakh Bangladesh people went to KSA on employment.

In the recent past Bangladesh faced crisis on Manpower export to Malaysia and Kuwait. The problem still persists and many Bangladeshi workers are facing problems in getting the jobs premised by the recruiting agencies, sources said.

Knowledgeable quarters have asked for utilizing the services of the Bangladesh missions abroad to promote the economic interests of the country. Conventional diplomacy has little value in the present age of global economic competition. The missions abroad should thus be geared to serve the best economic interests of the country.

In respect of Middle East countries the country's interest would be best served by helping Bangladeshi workers incase they face problems. They deserve the service being the second largest foreign exchange earner for the country.