The agreement recently signed in Mecca carries both emotion and politics in its very name. Between two important states in the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, mutual defence cooperation, coupled with Turkey’s close ties, means that this is not merely a military understanding. It is also a message about the changing geopolitics of the Middle East and South Asia.
Where Bangladesh will stand in this emerging equation is therefore an important question. In Bangladesh, discussions surrounding the new defence agreement signed in Mecca have focused primarily on security, unity in the Muslim world, the strategic relationship among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and Bangladesh’s potential role.
However, another highly practical and almost inevitable question has emerged in this discussion for Bangladesh: What benefit will this bring to the hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi workers employed in Saudi Arabia?
The question is important because Saudi Arabia is not merely a diplomatic partner, a friendly Muslim country, or an influential state in the Muslim world for Bangladesh. It is one of Bangladesh’s most important labour markets.
For years, hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis have worked there and sent remittances back home. Their contribution to Bangladesh’s economy is enormous. Therefore, when assessing any new strategic relationship, there is no scope to treat the safety, wages, job security, recruitment costs, and legal protection of Bangladeshi workers employed in Saudi Arabia as marginal issues. Yet in the major discussions surrounding bilateral relations, the safety, wages, rights, and dignity of those workers often remain little more than a footnote.
The first task for Bangladesh’s policymakers, therefore, should be to set emotions aside and make a realistic assessment of the Mecca agreement.
One point needs to be made clear from the outset: the Mecca agreement is not a workers’ rights charter. Its primary focus is mutual defence. In other words, its central commitment is security-oriented: if either party comes under armed attack, the other will stand by it. Its purpose is not to address labour rights, migration management, or the protection of foreign workers.
It is not a worker protection agreement
Even if Bangladesh joins the agreement, there is no reason to expect that the agreement’s current framework would automatically improve the wages, recruitment process, or working conditions of Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia.
Therefore, there is no real basis for expecting that if Bangladesh joins the agreement, Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia will receive higher wages, employers will return their passports, overdue wages will be paid promptly, or abused female domestic workers will suddenly receive legal protection overnight.
This raises the question: Does the agreement have no value at all for Bangladesh in terms of worker protection? It does, but not as a direct outcome of the agreement. Rather, it could create an opportunity for diplomatic bargaining. That is where diplomacy truly comes into play.
The Mecca agreement will not directly protect workers, but what Bangladesh can secure in exchange for joining the agreement is politically significant.
States speak of friendship; mature states also determine the value of that friendship. What remains to be seen now is how capable or prepared Bangladesh is to negotiate in this process.
The value of friendship
The relationship between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia goes back many years. Religious ties, the labour market, remittances, investment, and diplomatic cooperation together form a broad foundation for the relationship. But there is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of this relationship.
Bangladesh often speaks of its close relationship with Saudi Arabia, yet Saudi Arabia has not been seen taking an equally strong position on the rights of Bangladeshi workers. This is not merely a diplomatic weakness; it is also a policy weakness.
When a Bangladeshi worker goes to Saudi Arabia, he or she does not go there only for themselves. The money they send home supports a family, pays for children’s education, helps build homes, and keeps local economies in villages and cities moving.
The state also earns foreign currency from their remittances. In other words, although the worker’s physical presence is abroad, their economic contribution remains within Bangladesh. So why should protecting their rights not be made a central issue of foreign policy?
Bangladesh should now put this question at the forefront: If Saudi Arabia’s security is important to Bangladesh, then shouldn’t the safety of Bangladeshi people who contribute to the Saudi economy also be important?
In this regard, Bangladesh’s biggest mistake would be to view the Mecca agreement merely as a symbolic project of “Muslim unity” and assume that the issue of worker protection will somehow be resolved automatically within it.
In reality, the opposite approach is needed. If Bangladesh wants to deepen its security and strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia, it must secure visible and measurable commitments from Riyadh on worker protection in return for that relationship.
The biggest risks begin in Bangladesh
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has introduced some reforms in its labour market for foreign workers. Certain categories of workers now have greater freedom to change jobs and leave the country. However, domestic workers in many cases still remain outside the full protection of labor laws. The concerns raised by the International Labour Organization and rights advocates therefore go beyond legal reforms; they also involve effective enforcement and accountability.
When discussing worker protection, we often point the finger at Saudi employers. That is certainly necessary. But Bangladesh cannot avoid its own responsibilities. For Bangladeshi workers, the problems often begin not in Saudi Arabia, but in Bangladesh itself.
Excessive recruitment costs, dependence on intermediaries, discrepancies between promised and actual jobs, withheld wages, excessive working hours, passport confiscation, abuse, and difficulties in accessing legal assistance have been longstanding concerns.
Women domestic workers are particularly vulnerable; there have also been allegations of physical and sexual abuse in the past. Responsibility for protecting workers lies not only with Saudi employers but also with Bangladesh.
When a worker takes out a loan, mortgages land, or sells assets to go abroad, their options become limited if they do not receive the promised job and salary. Both countries therefore have a responsibility to act responsibly in implementing the Mecca agreement.
Bangladesh must stop excessive recruitment fees and false promises, ensure accountability for recruiting agencies, and make it mandatory to digitally verify, before departure, information about the contract, salary, working hours, employer, and accommodation. Worker protection must be ensured not after they arrive abroad, but before they even leave the country.
Geopolitics should not overshadow workers
Regarding the Mecca agreement, Bangladesh must maintain balanced relations rather than, driven by emotion, leaning toward any single geopolitical bloc. Military or strategic cooperation is not merely a matter of security; it also has implications for the economy, the labour market, and the interests of expatriate Bangladeshis.
The agreement itself will not raise workers’ wages or eliminate corruption, but effective diplomatic bargaining could create an opportunity to secure tangible benefits for workers.
If that opportunity remains confined to political formalities, its impact will not reach the lives of workers.
Alongside deepening relations with Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh must also prioritise the rights and security of Bangladeshis working there. They are not merely a source of remittances; they are important contributors to the country’s economy. Therefore, if Saudi Arabia’s security is a subject of bilateral discussions, the security of Bangladeshi workers must be given equal importance.
If the Bangladesh government moves closer to the agreement, its message should be clear from the outset: We want security cooperation, but we also want guarantees for the rights, dignity, protection, and security of our citizens.
What could Bangladesh ask for?
If Bangladesh considers joining this agreement, it could seek several things as part of its state-level negotiations:
First, Bangladesh should seek a separate worker protection protocol with Saudi Arabia. Whether it becomes part of the Mecca agreement or a separate bilateral agreement, it must include concrete accountability. For example, how many days should it take to resolve a complaint when wages are withheld?
If an employer violates the employment contract, how will the worker be able to change jobs? What action will be taken if an employer withholds a worker’s passport?
Bangladesh must strengthen its consular capacity in Saudi Arabia. The labour wings of the embassy and consulates need to expand both the scope and quality of their services
Where can a worker seek shelter if they report abuse? Who will provide legal assistance? How will the families of deceased or seriously injured workers receive compensation quickly?These issues require measurable commitments, not vague diplomatic language.
Second, reducing recruitment costs should be one of Bangladesh’s main diplomatic demands. If a worker spends the first few months abroad simply trying to repay the debt incurred to secure the job, they naturally become more vulnerable to exploitation.
Therefore, Bangladesh must establish a transparent, digital, and verifiable recruitment system involving Saudi employers, Bangladeshi recruiting agencies, and government authorities. A worker’s job, salary, working hours, accommodation, and the identity of the employer should all be verified before the worker leaves the country.
Third, the gap between the terms of the employment contract and the actual job must be eliminated. There needs to be a joint mechanism to verify whether a worker receives in Saudi Arabia the same salary and performs the same job described in the visa and employment documents issued in Bangladesh.
A national digital contract registry, interoperable with the Saudi authorities’ systems, could resolve a significant part of this problem.
Fourth, Bangladesh must strengthen its consular capacity in Saudi Arabia. The labour wings of the embassy and consulates need to expand both the scope and quality of their services.
For a worker, the embassy should not be merely a place to renew a passport or process documents, nor simply an office for repatriating a deceased worker’s body. It should be their last refuge.
The embassy’s capacity must be strengthened to handle complaints, provide legal assistance, mediate with employers, assist with labor court proceedings, provide emergency shelter, and facilitate communication with workers’ families back home.
A digital system could also be introduced here. Every Bangladeshi worker in Saudi Arabia could have a secure digital profile containing their employment contract, employer information, salary details, and emergency contacts.
If a worker files a complaint, they could track its progress themselves. The relationship between the state and its citizens would then no longer exist merely on paper.
Fifth, worker protection should be made a performance indicator. The strength of Bangladesh-Saudi relations should not be measured solely by the number of memorandums of understanding signed or the amount of investment received.
Instead, data should be published each year showing how many workers had their wages withheld, how many complaints were resolved, how many people fell victim to fraud, and how much the average recruitment cost has declined. These are not demands for "benefits"; rather, they are legitimate expectations of a partnership.
Finally, joining the Mecca agreement should not amount to one-sided allegiance to Saudi Arabia. Bangladesh regards Saudi Arabia as a highly important strategic partner, while Saudi Arabia also benefits from Bangladesh’s vast labour market and human resources. But the greatest human foundation of this relationship is the Bangladeshi worker.
Therefore, despite their significant contribution to the Saudi economy, the rights of Bangladeshi workers, who often remain overlooked in policy discussions, should be presented as a central condition of the security partnership. This represents Bangladesh’s greatest diplomatic opportunity in relation to the agreement.
* Dr. Selim Reza, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Center for Migration Studies, North South University
* The views expressed here are those of the author.
* This article appeared on Prothom Alo print and online and has been translated by Ayesha Kabir for Prothom Alo English Online