17 August 2021:
His Excellency Mr. Md. Abu Zafar, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the United Arab Emirates and Permanent Representative to IRENA held a bilateral meeting with His Excellency Mr. Saif Al Suwaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry for Human Resources and Emiratisation of the UAE at latter’s office in Dubai on 16 August 2021. The UAE Undersecretary was assisted by Mr. Abdulla Ali Rashid Alnuaimi, Assistant Undersecretary of Communication & International Relations and other high officials of the Ministry while the Ambassador was accompanied by the Consul General of Bangladesh in Dubai and Deputy Chief of the Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
The meeting discussed the whole gamut of bilateral cooperation and engagement in the areas of the continued employment of Bangladeshi workforce in the UAE and skill development before their arriving in the country. The UAE undersecretary highly commended the hardworking and adaptive aptitude of Bangladeshi workers and appreciated the remarkable contribution they have made to the socio-economic development of the UAE over the last four and half decades.
While thanking the UAE leadership for hosting Bangladeshi workers in their country and taking good care of them even during the pandemic, the Ambassador underscored the importance of job- centric training and orientation of the workers before their travel to UAE as well as on-arrival orientation on the workers’ rights, working condition, UAE language and culture etc. He put special emphasis on protection of the rights of the vulnerable groups, particularly the female domestic workers. To this effect, the Ambassador made a proposal that with the support of the UAE government and /or private sector Bangladesh can either designate or set up dedicated training institutes in Bangladesh and also develop suitable training module for workers wishing to take up employment in the UAE. He further proposed that the UAE should consider introducing ‘Skill Certification’ of the returning workers who have gained right skill in any trades owing to their long years of works in the UAE. The Ambassador also conveyed Bangladesh’s readiness for hosting in Dhaka the first meeting of the Joint Committee (JC) on implementation of the MoU on the recruitment of domestic workers from Bangladesh. He also appreciated the UAE Government for granting the opportunity to, like other nationals, visiting Bangladeshi nationals to take up employment in the UAE and then transfer their visit visa to employment visa at ease while looking forward to the re-opening of UAE job markets for general category of Bangladeshi workers along with other nationals that has remain suspended owing to the C-19 pandemic situation.
UAE side welcomed the proposals made by the Ambassador and expressed their willingness for holding the Joint Committee Meeting in the coming months in Dhaka. The UAE side stressed on a establishing a comprehensive and sustainable process that would cover all aspects of migration - namely proper training of the workers, transparent selection and recruitment process, wage protection, end-service benefit, rights and duties of all stakeholders (employers, employees, recruiting agents and the governments). They expressed that the whole issued would be discussed in detail during the forthcoming joint committee meeting.
They also discussed the ways and means for close cooperation between the two countries in different international forums for mutual interest in this field particularly, in Abu Dhabi Dialogue, Colombo Process and International Organization for Migration. The issue of returning of Bangladeshi nationals with UAE residence stranded in Bangladesh due to Covid-19 related travel ban was also discussed. The meeting ended with exchange of gifts from both ends.