A total of 203 Bangladesh expatriate workers have traveled to Korea since the lifting of suspension on the arrival of foreign workers in December.
On Wednesday, 92 Bangladesh workers left for Korea from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka via chartered flights operated by a Korean air company.
Earlier, in December, 111 Bangladesh workers were admitted to Korea, a spokesperson of the Korea Embassy said.
The South Korean Government suspended accepting foreign workers in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resumed receiving the expatriates from last month.
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.
Commenting on the issue, Ambassador Lee Jang-keun, said, Bangladesh EPS workers have played a crucial role in the Korea-Bangladesh relations contributing not only to the economic development of Bangladesh but also to the supply of labour force to Korean industry.
He welcomed the resumption of receiving Bangladesh workers and hoped that Korea would be able to accommodate more EPS workers from Bangladesh in the coming years, the spokesperson added.
So far, more than 20,000 Bangladesh workers have been dispatched to Korea through the EPS system.
According to the Bangladesh Bank, the remittance inflow from the Bangladesh workers in Korea amounted to 209.16 million US dollars in FY 2020/21 which made Korea the thirteenth major source of expatriate workers’ remittance. Korea ranked the 12th in FY 2019/20 with 177.84 million US dollars.
The inflow of remittance from Korea has been growing fast in recent years from $80.65 million in FY 2016/17 to $96.29 million in FY 2017/18 and $112.51 million in FY 2018/19.
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