The visit of Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud to Dhaka in January is likely to focus on documentation of displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, potential Saudi investment in Bangladesh and employment of more Bangladeshi workers there.
Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has invited his Saudi counterpart to Bangladesh and the visit is likely to take place in the second half of January, Bangladesh embassy officials in Riyadh said.
Bangladesh has proposed to host the Saudi foreign minister on January 24–26, but there may be minor adjustments to the date, said a Saudi embassy official in Dhaka.
The visit is significant as the Saudi government is keen to invest in Bangladesh, said a senior Bangladesh official, adding that long-term bilateral issues, including a Riyadh request to Dhaka for providing travel documents to displaced Rohingyas there and Dhaka’s request to Riyadh for employing more Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia, would also come up in the talks.
The Saudi authorities have handed over several lists to the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh containing the names of about 54,000 Rohingyas with the request for providing them with travel documents claiming that these Myanmar nationals have migrated to the KSA using Bangladeshi passports issued over the years.
Dhaka sought more specific information from the Saudi authorities to check the authenticity of the Saudi claims about the use of Bangladeshi travel documents by Rohingyas, said an official.
Former Bangladesh ambassador to Saudi Arabia Golam Moshi said that Rohingyas might have entered Saudi Arabia using fake Bangladeshi passports.
The government may consider providing travel documents only to those people who have travelled to Saudi Arabia with genuine Bangladesh passports, foreign minister AK Abdul Momen said.
In early 2020, the Arab kingdom despatched to Dhaka a 40-member delegation led by Mahir Abdul Rahman, a deputy minister for international affairs.
The delegation said that several Saudi companies, including Aramco, Acwa Power, Alfanar Group, Engineering Dimention, Red Sea Gateway Terminal, Daelim KSA and Aljumairah Group, were interested to invest in seaport management, power generation, liquefied natural gas and telecommunication sectors of Bangladesh, according to officials.
Riyadh and Dhaka are expected to discuss the materialisation of the investment potentials, said a Bangladesh official.
Bangladesh would seek to widen the employment opportunities for its workers in the KSA, ensure the return of the Bangladesh workers stranded at home due to COVID-19 and guarantee safety and security for its female workers in that country, a Bangladesh official said.
Saudi Arabia, a prime source of remittance for Bangladesh, is traditionally a job market for its migrant workers as about 4.2 million workers have gone to that country since 1976, according to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training data.
About two million Bangladeshi people were working in Saudi Arabia before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, according to BMET officials.
