Threat of unemployment looms large

Middle Eastern countries have reduced the overall salary they pay to expatriate workers. They have also adopted the policy of replacing as many foreign workers as they can with their own citizens.

Saudi authorities announced earlier this month that local citizens would be replacing more than a thousand foreign workers including at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, where a number of Bangladeshi workers are employed.

And this is not only being done by Saudi Arabia. Other Middle Eastern countries too are adopting similar policies.

The main reason why Bangladeshi workers are particularly vulnerable to potential layoff is that most of them lack the necessary education and skill.

This is extremely concerning for us. If we do not change our educational system to adjust to global standards, we may experience an unemployment crisis that could create a long-term instability in the country. The authorities should act before this becomes irreversible.

Md Saeed Hasan, By e-mail