96,000 Bangladeshis in Oman face Tk13,082 cr yearly penalty

3rd largest labor market opening

In the first phase, Oman will take skilled workers from Bangladesh in 12 categories

Rabiul Haque: It is known that currently there are 96 thousand illegal Bangladeshis in Oman. The country has also started the process of validating them. According to the rules, every worker has to pay a fee of 40 Riyals or Tk 12 thousand per month to be valid. According to that, if a worker wants to stay for 5 years, he will have to pay Tk 1 lakh 44 thousand a year, totaling Tk 7 lakh 20 thousand. About 96 thousand illegal workers will have to pay Tk 13,082.40 crore annually.
Bangladesh’s third largest labor market, Oman, is going to open soon. In the first instance, the country has also assured to take skilled workers in 12 categories from Bangladesh. Besides, the Omani government has assured to legalize the 96 thousand illegal Bangladeshi workers in the country.
Earlier, Oman announced the ban on issuing visas to Bangladeshi citizens from October 31 last year. The decision was taken by the Omani government mainly citing abuse of visas and having twice as many workers as needed. Since then, Oman’s labor market has been closed for Bangladeshis.
Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Ministry sources said that on May 30, Oman’s Labor Minister Dr. Mahad bin Saeed bin Ali Bauin holds a meeting with BangladeshState Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury. Oman’s labor minister informed about the decision to open the closed labor market in the meeting. He mentioned that visas will be given in different categories for Bangladeshis. The process has already been started. On the other hand, foreign employers of various companies based in Oman have also agreed to hire workers from Bangladesh.
In this context, State Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury said, ‘Oman has assured to take people from Bangladesh in 12 categories. They want to hire skilled workers. We have discussed this. If skilled workers start leaving, unskilled workers will also start leaving. It will be arranged gradually.
Regarding the workers staying illegally in Oman, State Minister Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury said, “Oman government has assured to legalize 96 thousand workers staying illegally. According to the rules, a fine has to be paid to validate.
We requested the Government of Oman to waive this fine during the recent visit. They have responded positively.
According to the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment, Omani employers are mainly interested in hiring skilled workers from Bangladesh. They want to recruit from private recruiting agencies, Bocell, the only government-owned manpower exporter, and even directly from training institutes.
A senior official of the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment said, ‘Not only Oman; The government is working to create skilled and qualified workers to meet the global growing demand of the foreign labor market. For this, investment in vocational training and skill development programs is being increased.
According to Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), 302 workers who got visas before the closure went to Oman in January this year. After that, no new workers could enter the country. Before this, last year (2023) 1 lakh 27 thousand 883 new people went to Oman. And in 2022, this number was 1 lakh 79 thousand 612 people.