Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh confirmed Saudi Arabia’s official ban on issuing visas to Bangladeshis seeking employment in households and in the agricultural sector.
The kingdom is also refusing to allow transfers of sponsorship for workers and professionals who are already there, while refusing to extend residency permits of Bangladeshi immigrants’ children aged 18 and over as well, the embassy added.
Saudi Arabia had officially declared the partial ban in March this year saying it is aimed at striking a balance among various nationalities working in the kingdom, but Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Dr Abdullah Bin Naser Al-Busairi’s comment at a media conference on July 14 created a confusion regarding the matter, when he said the kingdom did not have any restriction on hiring Bangladeshi workers.
But in a recent interview with the Saudi Gazette, Waheedur Rahman, deputy chief of Bangladesh Mission in Riyadh told the daily that no domestic helper including house maids and chauffeurs, neither any agricultural worker was recruited for work in Saudi Arabia since April 2008, while no official notification regarding the matter had been sent to the embassy by the labour ministry of that country.
Quoting Rahman, the kingdom’s influential daily the Saudi Gazette reported yesterday that around 8,000 Bangladeshi housemaids arrived in that country before April 2008 at an average rate of 300 arrivals a month.
The decision to stop recruiting Bangladeshi farm workers and household helps might have been an outcome of the kingdom’s desire to be self sufficient in the sectors, he said.
One Saudi recruiting agent, speaking on condition of anonymity, however told the Saudi Gazette that Bangladeshis are being singled out.
A huge number of Bangladeshi schoolchildren, who are about to turn 18, are facing possible deportation, the agent said.
“This is a big problem facing Bangladeshi families living in the kingdom,” he added saying the problem is acute for doctors, engineers and accountants, who could afford to bring their children to there.
Saudi immigration rule states that children of immigrant workers may stay in the kingdom on separate residency permits after turning 18, but their parents must sponsor them.
Negative media coverage about Bangladeshis being involved in criminal activities there might be a reason for the backlash, the recruiting agent said.
A group of Saudis already launched a website titled ‘No to Corruption’, campaigning to stop recruiting Bangladeshi workers.
The website in Arabic attracted more than 80,000 hits in two weeks, Arab News reported on February 12 this year.
The launch of the website was prompted by an increase in the number of crimes committed by Bangladeshis there, said one of the initiators of the campaign.
Experts however said singling out any particular nationality for punishment for crimes that can be committed by anyone anywhere, is neither rational nor acceptable.
While Bangladeshi workers in job categories other than domestic and agricultural are continuing to arrive in the kingdom, stay of those already there including doctors and nurses is getting uncertain as they are being denied transfers of sponsorship, and their children aged 18 and over are being denied renewal of residency permits, Waheedur said.
When parents are applying for renewal of residency permits for their children aged 18 years and over, the authorities are not giving extensions, he added saying several families had to send their children back to Bangladesh.
“The embassy receives several calls everyday from our workers about the refusal to allow sponsorship transfers even in professional job categories such as doctors and nurses,” he said.
Thousands of Bangladeshi workers were denied sponsorship transfers, Waheedur went on adding the embassy took up the matter with the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was awaiting a response.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest foreign employer of immigrant Bangladeshi workers, which currently employ around 18 lakh Bangladeshi expatriates.
Categories: Daily Bangladesh News
