Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has asked envoys in nine Middle Eastern countries for hunting new opportunities in those oil rich countries for the Bangladeshi workers.
He particularly focused on agricultural job creation as pandemic shrunk the traditional opportunities in those countries.
The foreign minister gave the directives at a videoconference with Bangladesh Ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Oman on Thursday, the foreign ministry said.
He said Bangladesh’s skilled agro-labourers can work competently in agriculture of different countries including in the Middle East to fulfil the food demand in the post-pandemic period.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin also joined the virtual meeting.
The foreign minister asked the envoys to put all diplomatic efforts in job retention of expatriate Bangladeshi workers.
He also instructed them to ensure getting salaries and allowances if any worker returns to Bangladesh from their respected host countries.
Terming the Bangladeshi expatriate workers as remittance-warrior, Dr Momen also asked the Bangladesh missions to continue their efforts in providing food assistance to the expatriate workers there.
Bangladesh missions abroad have already established ‘hotline numbers’ and many missions formed a ‘pool of doctors’ to provide online medical advice to the expatriate Bangladeshis.