The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Foreign Advisor Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury claimed that Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia are not facing any unusual hardship from the local law enforcing authorities.

He, however, dismissed the notion that the sending of Bangladeshi workforce to Saudi Arabia suffered a jolt. He was addressing a press briefing yesterday at the Foreign Ministry in the capital.

"This is not true that outflow of workers has slowed down," Dr Iftekhar said.

According to him, Bangladeshi workers are going to Saudi Arabia "uninterrupted" with jobs.

He informed that total 47,737 Bangladeshis went to Saudi Arabia till March 19 of this year. Some 21,598 workers went to Saudi Arabia in January 19, and 285 in February and 5515 went till March 19, 2008. On the other hand, Dr Iftekhar Ahmed hoped that the British Government would relax its newly announced point-based immigration policy to allow Bangladeshi chefs to work in popular curry restaurants in the UK.

Iftekhar said some 10,000 to 12,000 curry restaurants mostly run by Bangladeshis contribute $4 billion to the economy of the United Kingdom and the British Government is aware of it. "There is a mutual benefit on board," he noted.

"Now, if it could be proved that Bangladeshi cuisine of 'chicken, curry and masalla' is a specialized art and it cannot be prepared by Polish chefs, there is a chance of sectoral exemption of the immigration policy," he said.

Already, he added, some problems emerged in Scotland for shortage of staff in curry restaurants. Around 5 lakh Bangladeshi-British are living in the UK and a major part is involved in the traditional restaurant business.