Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury on Monday handed over 150 trolleys at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) to help expatriate workers carry their baggage, the ministry said.

The minister told reporters after the programme that the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board, which operates under the ministry, had supplied a total of 200 trolleys to the country’s three international airports. Of these, 150 went to Hazrat Shahjalal, while Chattogram and Sylhet airports received 25 each.

On sending workers to Japan, the minister said a new Employment for Skills Development Programme (ESDP) would replace the existing Technical Internship system and that Bangladesh and Japan had signed an agreement for this. 

He said the agreement would protect Bangladeshi workers in Japan, strengthen cooperation in sending and receiving workers, and widen opportunities to build a skilled workforce. He said workers would be able to earn higher wages and stay in Japan for longer periods.

Under the agreement, workers would get legal protection equal to that of local workers in Japan, with equal opportunities for men and women at work, the minister said. 

He added that female workers could not be dismissed or treated unfairly because of pregnancy or childbirth, and that the agreement does not require them to return home on those grounds.

Asked about two Bangladeshis killed in a bombing in Saudi Arabia, the minister said one was a migrant worker and the other an Umrah pilgrim, from Bogura and Cumilla. Their bodies would be brought home on a priority basis once air connectivity and the overall situation returned to normal, he said.

On two Bangladeshis recently executed in Saudi Arabia, the minister said the Bangladesh Embassy had written to the Saudi authorities seeking accurate information. He said the ministry would formally communicate the matter to the media once it received a reply.

Ministry Secretary Md Mokhtar Ahmed, Wage Earners’ Welfare Board Director General Md Asaduzzaman, and HSIA Executive Director Group Captain S M Ragib Samad were present, along with senior officials of the ministry and the airport.