The members of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies on Wednesday urged the government to allow migration to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia without attestation from the Bangladesh embassy in the KSA for up to 24 workers at a time.
They made the demand while addressing a human chain in front of the Probashi Kallyan Bhaban in Dhaka to press home their nine-point demand.
The Bangladesh embassy or mission in KSA attests to the demands from companies in the KSA for sending workers from Bangladesh after verifying whether they exist and need workers, whether they are financially sound and pay wages regularly, and whether they have a good working environment, they said.
Former BAIRA senior joint secretary Mohammed Fakhrul Islam said that, for years, recruiting agencies could send up to 24 workers to Saudi Arabia without attestation from the Bangladesh mission in the KSA.
For sending a group exceeding 24 workers, he said, the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training had mandated attestation from Bangladesh missions in the destination country.
In December, the government informed the recruiting agencies that attestation was mandatory even for sending a single worker, he said and added that the new order made the process time-consuming and complex.
He claimed that the new order was discouraging Saudi employers from hiring workers from Bangladesh.
The recruiting agents鈥� demands also include an end to the alleged misuse of human trafficking laws, and government intervention to regulate airfare.
Former BAIRA vice presidents Riazul Islam and Noman Chowdhury and former executive committee members Shahadat Hossain and Mostafa Mahmud, among others, were present.
Syed Saiful Haque, the chairman of the WARBE Development Foundation, however, said that many Bangladeshi workers had migrated to KSA only to find themselves without jobs.
He stressed the need for a proper verification mechanism before issuing migration permits.
鈥楾he attestation process should be made easier and transparent,鈥� he added.
