Oman Assures Bangladesh to Legalize 96,000 Illegal Workers

Oman has assured Bangladesh of legalizing 96,000 illegal workers from the country, Shofiqur Rahman Choudhury, State Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment, told journalist in Dhaka before Eid al Adha.

“Around 96,000 workers are living illegally in Oman. The Omani government has promised to legalize them. A penalty is charged for this legalization, but we have requested the Omani government to waive this fine,” Choudhury was quoted by Bangladesh media.

Addressing the suspension of all types of new visas for citizens of Bangladesh by Oman, imposed effective October 31, 2023, the minister said the sultanate has taken a decision to issue visas.

“Oman has assured us of taking new workers under 12 categories from Bangladesh. They want to hire skilled workers, and we have discussed this matter. If skilled workers start heading for Oman, unskilled workers will too. These arrangements will be made gradually,” Choudhary said.

In a statement on June 12, the Embassy of Oman in Dhaka said it ‘would like to officially confirm that a decision was taken lately by the relevant authorities in Oman to exempt certain categories of Bangladeshi nationals from the visa ban issued in October of last year’.

The exempted categories are: family visas, visit visas for citizens of Bangladesh residing in GCC countries, visas for physicians, engineers, nurses, teachers, accountants, investors, and all types of official visas and high-income tourists.

The statement added that the embassy will receive and process all applications belonging to these categories and that it will coordinate with Royal Oman Police to issue visas.

‘Furthermore, the Embassy would like to reassure all concerned with the ban on work visas that many steps have been taken by authorities and officials in Oman and Bangladesh to pave the way towards lifting the ban on work visas as soon as practicable.’

Following the visa suspension notice, the embassy stated that one of the reasons for the temporary suspension was to resolve the issue of an increasing number of laid-off workers in the market who resort to work illegally without having legal protection and rights. ‘The review will ensure that workers and employers’ rights are fully protected.’