The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Saudi Ambassador in Dhaka Abdullah M Al-Obaid Al-Namla yesterday affirmed that his mission did not receive any official instruction from Riyadh restricting the issuance of visas to Bangladeshis.

"It was purely a technical problem," the envoy said during a meeting with Foreign Secretary Tauhid Hossain at the Foreign Ministry following speculations on stoppage of issuing visas to Bangladeshi workers.

The Foreign Secretary discussed the problems relating to manpower export from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia.

He said currently around 1.7 million Bangladeshi skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers are working in Saudi Arabia.

In such a large Diaspora, the Foreign Secretary said, it was quite obvious that there would be some unscrupulous elements and lawbreakers. "Unfortunately, there have been attempts to attribute the actions of few towards the entire community in general who are sincere and law abiding," he added.

He also drew the attention of the envoy towards the recent news in different print and electronic media depicting a derogatory picture of Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia.

Media reports have claimed that there was an actual ban on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers and the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka was not issuing any visa to Bangladeshis for the last week.

The secretary said the government of Bangladesh was ready to cooperate with Saudi authorities to bring the few culprits to book and urged the authorities of Saudi Arabia to be compassionate and considerate towards the general law abiding workers from Bangladesh so that they did not suffer for the faults of the few.

In reply, the Saudi Ambassador categorically mentioned what was being published in various news media was not based on facts. He said the seizure of criminals and defaulters by law-enforcing authorities was a routine matter in Saudi Arabia and it was being conducted without any prejudice to any particular community.

He emphasized foreigners or natives, whoever were involved in culpable activities, were to be punished as per Saudi law.

The Ambassador said in a large community like of Bangladesh, it was very normal that a few could have been involved in illegal activities.

He said in Saudi Arabia the media were now enjoying greater freedom. They now have free access to the local police station to gather news to file their crime reports.

In this regard, he suggested more balanced reporting in local media in the interest of Bangladesh.

The Saudi Ambassador also suggested that the Bangladeshi workforce should be trained and briefed about Saudi laws and customs and the importance of abiding by the laws before they embark for Saudi Arabia.

He said the Saudi visa system is run centrally and due to technical debacles, around 3,00,000 visa were pending for issuance worldwide.