92 more Bangladeshi workers left Dhaka for South Korea

Some 92 Bangladeshi workers left Dhaka for South Korea on Wednesday by chartered flights operated by a Korean air company, reports UNB quoting a press release from South Korean embassy.

The South Korean government suspended recruitment of foreign workers in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It resumed receiving the expatriates from last month.

Among 92 workers, 44 workers were newly employed while the rest were re-entry workers.

After the resumption, so far, a total of 203 Bangladesh expatriate workers have traveled to Korea. In December, 111 Bangladeshi workers were admitted to Korea.

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

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 Bangladeshi workers have been dispatched to Korea through the EPS system.

According to the Bangladesh Bank, the remittance inflow from the Bangladeshi workers in Korea amounted to US Dollar 209.16 million in FY 2020-21 which made Korea the thirteenth major source of expatriate workers' remittance.