Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants to reduce the cost of recruiting domestic workers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, according to a report published in Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Eqtisadiah on Monday.
Quoting an unnamed official at the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the report said that the decision followed similar measures undertaken to lower the cost of recruiting workers from the Philippines also.
The coronavirus pandemic has added to the cost of recruiting workers from overseas because of more expensive flight tickets and the need for PCR tests before travel, said the report.
A one-way ticket cost to Saudi Arabia between Tk 20,000 and Tk 25,000 in most cases one year ago.
But some reports suggested that now the same destination cost a migrant Tk 90,000 to Tk 95,000.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, a total of 1,61, 726 migrant workers went to KSA in 2020.
The number is far less than 3,99, 000, Bangladeshi migrants who travelled to Saudi Arabia in 2019.
A total of 2,57,317 and 5,51,308 workers went to the country in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
Bangladesh earned $18 billion in remittance 2019, which was 2.56 per cent of the total global remittance inflow.
The largest amount of remittance was received from KSA ($1453.14), which is home to nearly 2.5 million Bangladeshi migrants.
