Manpower export leaps
Unb, Dhaka
Some 1,97,000 Bangladeshi workers have been sent abroad in the last four months, a 20 percent increase in manpower export compared to the corresponding period of last year."This is one of the success stories of the government," Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury told reporters yesterday. Of the workers, 57,000 went to Malaysia, he said after a meeting with a delegation of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) headed by its ex-president and former MP Mosharraf Hossain. The meeting discussed various problems facing the Baira in sending manpower abroad and ways to ensure that the Bangladeshi workers are not harassed in foreign countries. Recently, 400 Bangladeshi workers were sent back from Kuala Lumpur because the Malaysian immigration authorities found dissimilarities in their fingerprints. The adviser asked the authorities concerned here and Baira to inquire into it so that genuine workers are not harassed for "technical or bureaucratic faults". Chowdhury said the UAE Labour Minister would arrive here on May 20 when Bangladesh and the Gulf country will sign agreement on sending more workers and protecting their interests over there. Presently five to 7 lakh Bangladeshi workers are employed in the United Arab Emirates.
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