The Bangladesh mission in Jeddah yesterday filed an appeal before a Saudi court on behalf of Bangladeshi migrant worker Abul Bashar, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail for carrying illegal amphetamine pills into the Gulf country.

Twenty-year-old Md Bijoy has already paid Tk 2 lakh for taking a cleaner’s job in Dubai and has even got a visa to the Gulf emirate.

Remittance fell to a 16-month low of $1.72 billion in September, as money transfers through informal channels such as “hundi” might have increased.

An Italian offshore supply vessel on Saturday rescued 65 migrants, including women and children, fleeing Libya to Europe on a crowded, wooden boat.

The European Union has made “skilled migration” known as the “EU Blue Card” system much easier to attract more skilled migrants from outside of Europe.

Thirty Bangladeshis, who were rescued from the Mediterranean while trying to reach Italy illegally, returned home from Tunisia today.

Sending migrant workers abroad continued to remain inadequate amid the pandemic compared to what the situation was during pre-pandemic times, which posed a challenge for the labour migration sector.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has called upon major carbon emitting countries to rehabilitate the climate migrants displaced from their homes and traditional jobs due to climate change.

Mohiuddin Belal, an engineer based in UAE, heaved a sigh of relief on August 4 when he heard that his host country had lifted the flight ban from Bangladesh after about three months.

A group of 18 Bangladeshi migrants returned home yesterday from Lebanon after the International Organisation for Migration in coordination with governments of the countries facilitated their return. 

Remittance inflow has declined by 8 per cent year-on-year to $1.8 billion in August, lowest in six months due to money transfer through informal channels termed like hundi, increased, bankers said.

Speakers at a virtual consultation yesterday said standard employment contract paper should be provided to outgoing migrant workers as part of fair and ethical recruitment practices in the migration sector.

Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry has framed a policy to recognise recruiting agents as the Commercially Important Person (CIP) for their contribution to overseas employment.

Speakers at a dialogue yesterday stressed the need for media’s proactive role in addressing different challenges in the country’s labour migration sector.

A fully-functional “one-stop service centre” should be created to provide all kinds of support and information to female migrant workers regarding their safe migration, said speakers during an online dialogue yesterday.

Several thousand UAE-bound Bangladeshi expatriate workers are passing days in uncertainty over returning to the gulf country due to absence of rapid PCR test facilities of Covid-19 in Bangladesh airports.

At least 398 bodies of Bangladeshi migrants were sent from Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah region in the 2020-2021 fiscal year following efforts taken by the Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah.

As many as 121 migrant workers have left the country on Friday for East African nation Seychelles, which emerged as a new market opportunity for Bangladesh in recent years.

Bangladesh has recently proposed the United Arab Emirates either designate or set up dedicated training institutes for migrant workers in Bangladesh with support of the UAE government, or private sector, or both. Bangladesh has also proposed the development of a suitable training module for workers wishing to be employed in the UAE.

Thirteen Bangladeshis rescued in the Mediterranean have returned to Dhaka today from Tunisia.