Qatar PM promises hiring more Bangladeshis

Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani has assured hiring more workers from Bangladesh and providing them skill training facilities, said an expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry press release yesterday.

On Wednesday, Qatar Administrative Development and Labour and Social Affairs Minister Issa Saad Al-Jafali Al-Nuaimi showed interest in recruiting about three lakh Bangladeshis over the next two years, said Jahangir Alam, public relations officer of the expatriates' ministry.

The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training statistics say some 1.23 lakh workers were employed in 2015 and nearly 1 lakh the year before. Now nearly 4 lakh Bangladeshi workers are employed there.

The assurance came during a courtesy call made by Expatriates' Minister Nurul Islam who reached the Gulf country on Tuesday with a nine-member delegation on a three-day official visit.

A joint-working group will meet in Dhaka in the first week of March. Recruiting construction and cleaning workers in recent times, Qatar is now eyeing salesmen, nurses, doctors and engineers.