Pay hotel costs for workers in Saudi

Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) has demanded that the government should pay Tk 60,000 to each of the Saudi-bound workers from the Wage Earners Welfare Fund as expenses for their 7-day quarantine in Saudi hotels.

Sommilito Somonnoy Front (Combined Coordination Front), an election-centric platform of the BAIRA, placed a total of four demands at a press conference at Sagar-Runi Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU) on Tuesday.

Other demands of the manpower exporters are taking urgent measures to provide Covid-19 vaccine to the migrant workers currently residing in the country; resumption of Labour Fair on an emergency basis in order to send workers abroad; providing a grant of Tk 1 crore to each of the recruiting license owners who incurred loss due to pandemic and a minimum incentive of Tk 5 crore to each member of BAIRA from the Probashi Kallyan Bank and other scheduled commercial banks as per the government rules in order to keep the business afloat.

The front leaders said, “There is no elected representative in BAIRA now. The day-to-day operations of BAIRA are carried out by an administrator appointed by the Ministry of Commerce. So we are compelled to inform the government about the problems that exist in our sector.”

“We urge to resume the Labour Fair for the benefit of migrant workers and to reduce immigration costs,” the speakers added.

Noting that the government has given incentives to various sectors, they said the government should also come forward sincerely to provide incentives to the manpower export sector for the wellbeing of the country.

The president of the front Mohammad Faruk presided over the press conference which was conducted by Secretary General Mostafa Mahmud. Vice President Riaz-ul-Islam and others were also present at the conference.

BAIRA to govt