The aspirants who are in the process of going to Oman with jobs have been facing uncertainty due to a recent travel ban imposed by the gulf country, manpower recruiters said.
According to them, at least 20,000 visas of Oman-bound workers were under the process but it remained halted because of flight suspension. Both the workers and recruiters will suffer loss if the recruitment is not started soon. Many visas will expire within two or three months.
Oman suspended air flights from Bangladesh on April 24 in the wake of an increase in coronavirus cases. Bangladesh is currently battling a second wave of coronavirus with a growing number of cases and deaths across the country.
To control transmission of the virus, the government has also enforced a nationwide lockdown and suspended all international flights. But the flights of migrant workers to Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore resumed on April 17 to help them join their workplaces.
Arifur Rahman, the owner of Oparajita Overseas, said he has eight visas of Oman-going workers. Already one visa has expired while others will be invalid at the end of this month.
They are going through tough times. The authorities should communicate with the government of Oman to get travel permission for migrant workers, he thinks.
More than 20,000 visas of Oman-bound workers were under the process before imposing travelban by Oman, said Mr Rahman, also secretary general of Recruiting Agencies Oikko Porishad, a panel of manpower recruiters.
A significant amount of money has already been involved in the visa processing. Many workers have paid money. If they fail to send workers, they will have to count extra money.
Each worker spends Tk 180,000 to Tk 300,000 as migration cost for going to Oman with jobs. The cost also varies, depending on middlemen interference, sector insiders and workers said. Bangladeshis mainly work in construction, cleaning and shopping mall sectors of Oman.
Oman was the second largest country after Saudi Arabia for Bangladeshi workers in 2019. It hired 72,654 workers from Bangladesh in that year, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) data.
But the flow of workers to the gulf country declined notably last year following Covid-19 fallout. Oman stopped flights from Bangladesh in early 2020s.
The BMET statistics showed that Oman recruited 21,071 workers in 2020. However, the outflow of workers to this oil-rich country was gradually increasing this year.
The data showed that Oman hired 28,065 workers in January and 4,463 in February in the current year.
Migration experts said the coronavirus cannot not be combatted soon in the world. So, both worker sending and destination countries should adopt policy so that recruitment of migrant workers is not hampered.
Migrant workers are vulnerable in many ways. If they fail to go abroad for joining their work on time, they have to count additional money. Because the majority of them borrow money or sell assets to mange migration cost, said Jasiya Khatoon, director of WARBE Development Foundation.
She also suggested taking necessary steps to resolve the crisis and contain the spread of coronavirus in the country.
The BMET data showed that Bangladesh sent more than 1.5 million workers to Oman since 1976.
