A total of 248 Bangladesh expatriate workers left for South Korea from Bangladesh through a chartered flight from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Tuesday. It is the biggest number of the workers left for South Korea in a day so far, said the Embassy in a media release. South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun said as many as 5,200 Bangladesh workers are expected to have gone to Korea by the end of this year. Until November 1 this year, 3,986 Bangladesh expatriate workers were admitted to Korea which is the largest number since the start of Korea’s Employment Permit System (EPS) in 2008 through which the Korean Government recruits low and medium-skilled foreign workers. Also read: Over five lakh Bangladeshi expats lost jobs during Covid-19 pandemic: Minister Among the departed workers today, a female worker Champa, who would work at a manufacturing factory in Gyeonggi Province for the next four years and ten months, said she does not expect difficulties in Korea as the company would provide food and shelter. Her mother will raise her 10-month-old daughter while she works in Korea.

One hundred and thirteen Bangladesh workers left for Seoul from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport via a direct chartered flight operated by a Korean airline Wednesday. It was the fifth batch of Bangladesh workers that went to Korea this year after the departure of 110 on February 16. Read: Saudi Arabia Records Increase in the Recruitment Contracts of Domestic Workers in 2021 Fifty-two of the 113 workers were newly employed and the rest re-entered the East Asian country. South Korea stopped accepting foreign workers in March 2020 due to Covid and resumed receiving the expatriates from December 2021. Since then, 562 Bangladesh workers have gone to Korea – 111 in December 2021; 92 on January 5, 38 on January 19, 98 on February 9, 110 on February 16, and 113 on March 9 this year – said the South Korean Embassy in Dhaka. South Korea has been accepting medium and low-skilled workers from 16 countries, including Bangladesh, through the EPS (Employment Permit System) programme. However, due to the unprecedented and prolonged pandemic, the Korean government suspended receiving EPS workers. Read:Greece to take 4,000 Bangladeshi workers every year: MoU Following continuous requests from the sending countries and the employers, South Korea decided to lift the suspension from November last year on a limited scale and in a phased manner with strict Covid measures. The remittance inflow from the Bangladesh workers in Korea has been continuously increasing in recent years from $80.65 million in fiscal year (FY) 2016-17 to $209.16 million in FY 2020-21, according to the Bangladesh Bank.

Bangladesh has urged Malaysia to finalise the protocol amending the MoU between the government of Malaysia and the government of Bangladesh (G-to-G plus) on the employment of workers.