Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) announced to suspend submitting passports at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Dhaka from Sunday, in protest against its decision to process passports, visas of workers through a third party.

BAIRA also urged the Saudi Arabia government to stop passports and visa processing of workers through a private organization named ‘Shapla Center’ to stop the syndication in the country's labour market.

The decision was announced at a meeting of the members of the manpower importer’s association BAIRA held on Saturday in the capital.

BAIRA president Md Abul Bashar said no one will submit passports to the embassy until the Saudi government withdraws the notice to submit passports of workers through a third party.

“We have proposed to the Councilor of the Saudi Embassy to build a place from our own initiative for passport submission if the crowd is an issue. Neglecting the proposal they have sent us all notices to submit passports of workers through Shapla Centre,” he said.

The BAIRA president said the Saudi government tried to impose the same decision in India for recruiting workers but failed as all the Indian recruiting agencies rejected it and was forced to receive passports from them directly, he added.

He said punitive measures will be taken if involvement of any BAIRA members in this matter is identified.

He said hopefully BAIRA will hold a meeting with the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Dhaka within a week to inform them about their decision.

“We will ask them to receive passports from us or do the passport and visa processing of workers through Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) but we won’t do business through a third party,” he added.