Plan to send 6 million workers abroad in 5 years, State Minister for Expatriate Welfare in Parliament

State Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury Photo: Bengali Vogue

There is a plan to send 6 million workers abroad in the next five years, said the State Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury.

This was said by the state minister in response to the question of Nurunnabi Chowdhury, a member of parliament of the government party in the national parliament on Tuesday.

A question and answer session was held at the beginning of the meeting under the chairmanship of Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury.

In the question and answer session, State Minister Shafiqur Rahman said that in 2022, 11 lakh 35 thousand 873 workers went abroad for employment. In 2023, this number increased to 13 lakh 5 thousand 453 people.

In response to the question of independent member of parliament Abdullah Nahid Nigar, the Minister of State for Foreign Employment said that workers are being sent from Bangladesh to about 176 countries of the world.

In response to the question of another independent member of Parliament, Muhammad Saiful Islam, the State Minister for Expatriate Welfare said that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, United Arab Emirates are one of the labor markets of Bangladesh in the Middle East. Bangladesh's labor market in the Middle East is not at risk because of the Rohingya. In 2023, 4 lakh 97 thousand 674 workers were sent to Saudi Arabia, 1 lakh 27 thousand 883 to Oman, 98 thousand 422 to United Arab Emirates, 56 thousand 148 to Qatar and 36 thousand 548 to Kuwait.

Food stocks are satisfactory

In response to the question of government party member of parliament Anwarul Azim, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumdar said that till February 20, 16 lakh 79 thousand tons of food grains are stored in the government food warehouse. Out of this 14 lakh 38 thousand tons of rice and 2 lakh 41 thousand tons of wheat. Food stocks are currently satisfactory. The government is procuring rice and wheat from domestic sources to increase food stocks. Rice-wheat import program from abroad has been taken up.