A total of 339 Bangladeshi workers have left for South Korea since December, 2021.

On Wednesday, 98 Bangladeshi workers left for South Korea from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport via chartered flights operated by a Korean air company.

It was the second batch of Bangladeshi expatriate workers going to Korea this year after the 92 workers on 5th January.

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According to the Bangladesh Bank, the remittance inflow from the Bangladesh workers in Korea has been continuously increasing in recent years from US$ 80.65 million in FY 2016/17 to US$ 209.16 million in FY 2020/21.

The South Korean Government suspended accepting foreign workers in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed receiving the expatriates from December 2021.

After the resumption, so far, a total of 339 Bangladesh expatriate workers have traveled to Korea; 111 in December 2021, 130 in January, 2022 and 98 in February 2022, said the South Korean Embassy in Dhaka on Wednesday.

Originally 108 workers were supposed to depart, but 10 workers who were found COVID-19 positive in the PCR test could not join this time.

Among the 98 workers, 34 workers were newly employed while the rest of them, 64 were re-entry workers.

Another batch of 130 Bangladesh workers will be sent  to Korea in mid-February.

South Korea has been admitting medium and low-skilled foreign workers from 16 countries including Bangladesh through the EPS (Employment Permit System) program.

Due to the unprecedented and prolonged COVID-19 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 in a limited scope and phased manner with strict COVID-19 protective measures including quarantines.

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