Labour market in UAE may reopen next month
The labour market in the United Arab Emirates is likely to reopen for Bangladeshis next month, Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Eng Mosharraf Hossain told parliament yesterday.
Recently, the UAE, the second largest destination of Bangladesh's labour with over 12 lakh employees in the oil-rich country, has stopped issuing visas for Bangladeshis.
A number of ruling Awami League MPs inquired the minister why the UAE even stopped giving tourist visas to Bangladeshis.
In reply, Mosharraf said the Arab country was trying to bring a balance in recruiting manpower from abroad. "Bangladeshi workers have saturated the UAE presently. Therefore, sending workers to the UAE has shrunken, but not stopped.”
He also said a UAE high-level official was due to visit Bangladesh later this month. “We hope after fruitful discussion with the team, Bangladesh labour market in the UAE will reopen next month.”
5,108 WORKERS DIED UNNATURALLY IN 5 YRS
The minister also told parliament that 16,789 Bangladeshi workers died in different countries in the last five years since 2009. Of them, over 5,108 died unnatural death.
The minister claimed that the death rate among Bangladeshi workers abroad was not higher than that among nationals of the neighboring countries including India.
Citing prevention measures, Mosharraf said, “We have issued instructions to different companies so that they don't put our labourers at work between 12:00 noon and 4:00pm when the temperature remains very high in Middle East countries during summer, causing unnatural death of our workers.”
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