UAE, Bangladesh sign domestic worker deal
Individual sponsors can recruit 19 categories of workers; recruitment by companies will be phased out
The UAE and Bangladesh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) yesterday on recruitment of Bangladeshi domestic workers in the UAE.
The agreement was signed, in the presence of Nasser Bin Thani Juma Al Hameli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, by Saif Ahmad Al Suwaidi, undersecretary at the ministry, and Nomita Haldar, secretary at the Bangladeshi Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment, WAM reported.
Al Hameli praised the cooperation between the governments of the two countries in various fields, including the recruitment of qualified domestic workers from Bangladesh to the UAE in compliance with laws and rules of both countries.
“The signing of the MoU comes within the ministry’s keenness to open up numerous markets to families and employers in the country and to provide several options for the recruitment of domestic workers to meet their needs and achieve their aspirations,” he said.
Mohammad Imran, Bangladeshi Ambassador to the UAE, told Gulf News that the MoU covered the recruitment of 19 categories of domestic workers such as housemaids, cooks, drivers, personal tutors, household nurse, caregiver, gardener, farmworker etc.
He said individual sponsors could recruit these workers as per the MoU. A previous MoU signed between Bangladesh and a UAE Government -affiliated recruitment company had stipulated that housemaids had to be recruited only through registered recruitment companies.
“That will change and I was given to understand that recruitment by companies will gradually be phased out,” Imran said.
Around 40,000 Bangladeshi housemaids are already working in the UAE, the envoy said.
He said both nations will work together to form a joint committee under the MoU and finalise the modalities of the recruitment procedures.
The WAM report said Tadbeer centres are the only authorised centres to bring in and recruit workers to the UAE as per the MoU. Tadbeer will soon start providing their service to recruit workers in different sectors. The recruitment office in the UAE will send job offer letters with all terms and conditions to candidates in Bangladesh.
A per the MoU, workers should have the required qualifications and must be physically and mentally fit to perform the job for which they are recruited.