This year’s first batch of Bangladeshi workers leave for Korea

Some 92 Bangladeshi workers left Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for Korea today through chartered flights operated by a Korean air company as the government of the East Asian nation resumed receiving foreign workers.

It was the first batch of Bangladeshi expatriate workers, who went to Korea this year, the Korean embassy said in a statement today.

Forty four of the 92 workers were newly employed while the rest re-entered Korea.

The Korean government suspended accepting foreign workers in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resumed receiving the expatriates from last month.

After the resumption, so far, a total of 203 Bangladeshi expatriate workers have travelled to Korea.

In December, 111 Bangladeshi workers went to Korea.

Korea has been allowing medium and low-skilled foreign workers from 16 countries, including Bangladesh, under the EPS (Employment Permit System) programme.

Due to the unprecedented and prolonged coronavirus pandemic, however, the Korean government suspended receiving EPS workers.

Accommodating continuous requests from the sending countries as well as from the employers, the Korean government decided to lift the suspension from November last year on a limited scale.

Bangladeshi EPS workers have played a crucial role in the Korea-Bangladesh relations, contributing not only to the economic development of Bangladesh but also to the supply of labour force to Korea, Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun said on the occasion.

He welcomed the resumption of receiving Bangladeshi workers and hoped that Korea would be able to accommodate more EPS workers from Bangladesh in the coming years.

So far, more than 20,000 Bangladeshi workers have been dispatched to Korea through the EPS system, according to the statement.

Bangladeshi workers in Korea sent home $209.16 million in fiscal year 2020-21, which made Korea the 13th major source of expatriate workers' remittance, according to Bangladesh Bank.

Korea ranked 12th in fiscal year 2019-20 with $177.84 million.

The inflow of remittance from Korea has been growing fast in recent years hitting $80.65 million in fiscal year 2016-17 to $96.29 million in fiscal year 2017-18 and $112.51 million in fiscal year 2018-19.