Bangladesh sent a total of 10,08,525 workers abroad during 2017, said Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam.

“There is no problem in sending workers to foreign countries as our ministry has taken multipurpose initiatives to increase number of expatriate’s workers and expand the labour market,” he said during a discussion at parliament today.

He was replying to a question of AFM Bahauddin (Nasim), lawmaker of Madaripur-3.

The minister said, the labour market of Saudi Arabia opened for Bangladesh after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited there on June 4, 2017, and now, the women workers are going to Saudi Arabia at free of cost.

Different male professionals are also going to Saudi Arabia along with female workers which is an outcome of labour diplomacy, he said.

“A total of 5,52,308 workers went to Saudi Arabia in 2017,” the minister added.

The minister said Bangladesh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UAE on recruiting Bangladeshi domestic workers in the UAE on April 18 this year.

He further informed that a total of 99,787 workers were sent to Malaysia in 2017 under government to government system on private sector management.

Replying to a question of Dr Rustom Ali Farazi, Minister Nurul Islam said till date a total of 23,35,873 workers have been sent to the UAE.

In response to another question of Begum Salam Islam (Dhaka-1), the minister said the government sends on average six lakh workers to different countries every year and of them 90 percent workers go to Middle East.

Besides, the government has sent a total of 30,94,848 workers during January 1, 2014 to May 31, 2018, he said, adding that the government is maintaining diplomatic correspondence with different countries to expand the labour market.