Minimum wage for each unskilled Bangladeshi worker who receives food and lodging in Saudi Arabia has been fixed at 550 Saudi Riyals (SR) per month.

According to a press release of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, The minimum wage will be effective from July 1 this year.

If the employer provides lodging only, the minimum wage for an unskilled worker has to be SR 750 (1SR=Tk 19). If the employer does not provide any food and lodging, the minimum wage will have to be SR 950, the release added.

A recent inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Abdul Matin Chowdhury, expatriates’ welfare secretary, fixed the minimum wage and decided that no employment demand letter or visas will be approved if the wages are less than that fixed by the government.

According to officials and manpower agencies handling recruitment of workers to the kingdom, Bangladeshi workers get the lowest wages due to fierce competition between recruiting agencies and middlemen who buy visas from Saudi employers.

Presently, each of the around 1.7 lakh Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia gets only around SR 200 to SR 300 per month, prompting some of the workers to be engaged in criminal activities for additional income or be engaged in multiple jobs — a violation of laws of the Middle Eastern country.

The meeting also decided that all the Saudi Arabia-bound workers — either with individual or group visas — must undergo an orientation session before their departure.

A spokesperson at the expatriates’ welfare ministry said 616 Bangladeshis were found to be detained in a deportation facility in Riyadh for various reasons and 286 Bangladeshis were detained for criminal offences.

As of February 9, a total of 348 Bangladeshis were in the facility awaiting deportation, the spokesperson added.

Some of the Bangladeshis were detained as they violated rules by switching jobs or did not have valid work permits or their visas expired, he said.

“It may be mentioned that many Bangladeshis wishing to save the money for their trip back home destroy their valid documents and surrender to Saudi police. According to the Saudi rules, the Saudi authorities pay for the airfare of the deportees,” he added.

Even a number of middlemen are encouraging legal Bangladeshi workers that they could save money if they returned home through the deportation centres, he said.

“No legal Bangladeshi worker has been deported to Bangladesh as yet,” said the spokesperson.