4,941 Bangladeshis to go to S Korea by this year

The Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited is going to send 4,941 workers to South Korea by this year through the Employment Permit System.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, South Korea suspended taking foreign EPS workers from March 2020 to November 2021, reads a press release.

After the pandemic cooled both in South Korea and Bangladesh, the South Korean government resumed taking workers in December last year.

It requires strict quarantine measures before the workers' departure from Bangladesh and after their arrival in Korea.

In 2022, South Korea announced a quota of 1,941 Bangladeshi workers, but Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Ltd (BOESL) completed the quota within six months.

That is why South Korea announced an additional quota in two phases. BOSEL expects that they can complete the quota within December this year.

If everything goes according to the plan, the total number of workers employed will be the highest since the beginning of Korea's EPS program in Bangladesh since 2008. 

In 2018, 2,355 Bangladeshi workers went to the country through the EPS.

Korea's EPS system and foreign worker policies were highly recognised by the International Labour Organisation.

As it ensures measures like high level of salaries, equal labour rights and four-category-insurance of employment insurance, industrial accident compensation insurance, national pension, and national health insurance.

More than 25,877 Bangladesh workers have been dispatched to South Korea through the EPS, reports BSS.

According to the Bangladesh Bank, the remittance flow from Bangladeshi workers in South Korea is $135.46 million in FY2021-22 which made South Korea the 15 major source of expatriate workers' remittance earning.

After an MoU was signed between the two governments, BOESL has been sending Bangladesh workers to South Korea since 2008.