There is no visa ban for Bangladeshis in the United Arab Emirates, an official of the Gulf state’s foreign ministry says, discrediting media reports.
Those reports claim that UAE has stopped issuing visas for Bangladeshis since 2012 when Bangladesh voted for Moscow instead of Dubai for hosting the World Expo 2020.
Dubai finally won the bid.
Assistant Undersecretary for Consular Affairs of the UAE foreign ministry Ahmed Alham Al Dhaheri said they were issuing a large number of visas every year.
Last year 250,000 Bangladeshis went to the UAE.
“Only labour visa depends on companies,” he said.
He also said they were restructuring the rules for some companies on how many workers they would be able to hire.
Al Dhaheri was talking to journalists after the opening of a new, separate consular section in Dhaka, the fourth of its kind in the world.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam inaugurated the centre in Gulshan diplomatic area.
With this new centre, Dhaheri said electronic visa system would be introduced and Bangladeshi travellers would be able to use e-gates at all airports in the UAE.
The UAE officials will take biometric details and eye scans while issuing visas.
Ambassador Saeed bin Hajar al Shehi said this reinforced the “good brotherly relations” between the countries.
State Minister Alam thanked the UAE for opening a separate consular centre and hoped this would ease the visa process for Bangladeshis.
“This’ll ensure transparent and faster process for issuing visa,” he said. “We hope a large number of Bangladeshis will be able to get visa now.”
He said the UAE will also appoint labour attachés in Bangladesh to ease the process of taking workers from Bangladesh.
The state minister also hoped that the emirates would take in more Bangladeshis ahead of the 2020 expo.
The UAE is one of the largest manpower destinations for Bangladesh.
Source: Bd news24
