For the first time, Saudi Arabia has announced the recruitment of doctors and nurses from Bangladesh. Saudi Ambassador to Dhaka Isa Al-Duhailan confirmed this information in an interview on Saturday local time.
While Saudi Ambassador Isa Al-Duhailan said, under an agreement signed two years ago, the Saudi Arabian government has approved the decision to employ Bangladeshi doctors and nurses.
The Saudi ambassador said that Saudi Arabia has not recruited any medical personnel from Bangladesh for a long time. But now we have started recruiting them. Because they have already reached our standards. This number will increase by leaps and bounds in the near future, InshAllah. It’s just the process of starting the market and seeing how it goes.
The Saudi ambassador also said that a team from the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia visited Bangladesh twice last year. They will continue to visit Bangladesh to recruit more medical personnel. Nurses will be among the next group to leave for Saudi Arabia.
Khairul Alam, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Employment and Expatriate Welfare, said that the Saudi authorities had asked us to send more than 150 trained nurses. Our ministry is now scrutinizing the conditions. Like where Bangladeshi nurses will be posted, whether they will be posted in government hospitals or private health facilities, etc. Since this is a new sector, the government is now making arrangements for the recruitment of doctors.
Khairul Alam said, “We welcome the latest move by Saudi Arabia to recruit Bangladeshi health workers.”
It should be noted that the information of Bangladesh Medical Association says that there are only a few dozen doctors among the nearly 3 million Bangladeshi expatriate workers living in Saudi Arabia. Earlier, in 2022, an agreement was signed between the two countries regarding the appointment of Bangladeshi doctors in Saudi Arabia. Later in November last year, a group of Bangladeshi medical workers went to Saudi Arabia.
