Bangladesh sending skilled workers to Saudi Arabia under new employment scheme

Bangladesh sending skilled workers to Saudi Arabia under new employment scheme
In this photo shared by the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka on Feb. 8, 2023, Riyadh’s envoy to Bangladesh, Essa Al-Duhailan signs a Skill Verification Program agreement with the Bangladeshi Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training. (Saudi Embassy in Bangladesh)
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Updated 08 February 2023

Bangladesh sending skilled workers to Saudi Arabia under new employment scheme

Bangladesh sending skilled workers to Saudi Arabia under new employment scheme
  • Kingdom’s recruitment to guarantee higher salaries for Bangladeshis, Saudi envoy says
  • Initial phase targets plumbers, electricians, welders and AC technicians

DHAKA: Bangladesh is preparing to send skilled workers to Saudi Arabia for the first time under the newly launched Skill Verification Program, authorities said on Wednesday.
Under the Workers’ Recruitment and Skill Verification Program, which aims to improve the professional competence of employees in the Saudi labor market, the Kingdom will recruit skilled workers from the South Asian country.
In its initial phase, the program will focus on five professions: Plumbers, electricians, welders, automotive electricians and air conditioning technicians.
The SVP deal between Saudi and Bangladeshi authorities came into effect this week.
“Saudi authorities will hire the first batch of skilled workers as a pilot program. One thousand migrant workers will be hired ... the number will be increased gradually. We are going to begin this recruitment process very soon,” Mohammad Salah Uddin, training director at the Bangladeshi Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, told Arab News.
“We are very well prepared. Initially, the Saudi authorities want to conduct the testing process of migrant workers in the capital. Later on, we will expand the testing process outside of Dhaka, in accordance with our capacity and demand.”
The bureau has 95 training centers and will soon launch another 15, Uddin said.
“We have sufficient infrastructure and capability to prepare skilled workers as per demand from the Saudi authorities.”
BRAC, the largest development organization based in Bangladesh, sees the employment of skilled workers as a new trend in the country’s work migration.
“I think the migration process in the coming days will follow this system. All the migrant-receiving countries will ask for skilled workers. All of our training centers run by the government and private organizations need to strengthen their efforts in this regard,” Shariful Hasan, head of BRAC’s migration program, told Arab News.
“Most of our migrant workers are currently unskilled, and they don’t have any kind of certificate to be considered skilled workers. They don’t receive training from any training center and get employed as unskilled workers. The new initiative opens a horizon of prospects,” Hasan told Arab News.
With about 2 million people joining the Bangladeshi workforce every year, having at least a fourth of that number trained should not be a problem for the South Asian nation.
“If the government takes the initiative to prepare at least half a million people as skilled workers, I don’t see any problems with it. We have technical training centers at the grassroots level also. There is no point in providing conventional university degrees to all the youth. Rather, if we equip many of them with technical knowledge, it will bring good results in the long run,” Hasan said.
“It’s an opportunity since the workers will get a higher salary as skilled workers and their migration costs will be reduced significantly.”
About 2.8 million Bangladeshi nationals live in Saudi Arabia, with most employed in low-profile jobs at construction sites or as household staff. They play a significant role in the Bangladeshi economy by sending large amounts of remittances home, contributing more than 5 percent to the country’s gross domestic product.
Riyadh’s Ambassador to Dhaka, Essa Al-Duhailan, told reporters in the Bangladeshi capital on Tuesday evening that the new employment program would guarantee higher salaries for Bangladeshis — at least double those of average workers.
“If he is an ordinary worker, he might get SR800 ($213) to 1,000, but a skilled worker will get SR1,500 to 1,800, or even more,” Al-Duhailan said.
“His remittance will be higher because the salary will be higher. It will contribute to strengthening the Bangladeshi economy.”


Muslims in Indonesia gear up for first day of Ramadan

Muslims in Indonesia gear up for first day of Ramadan
Updated 15 sec ago

Muslims in Indonesia gear up for first day of Ramadan

Muslims in Indonesia gear up for first day of Ramadan
  • Every region in the vast Southeast Asian archipelago seems to have its own way to mark the start of Ramadan
JAKARTA: Millions of Muslims in Indonesia are gearing up to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, which is expected to start on Thursday, with traditions and ceremonies across the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country amid soaring food prices.
From colorful torchlight street parades to cleaning relatives’ graves and sharing meals with family and friends, every region in the vast Southeast Asian archipelago seems to have its own way to mark the start of Ramadan, highlighting the nation’s diverse cultural heritage.
The country’s religious affairs minister on Wednesday evening will try to sight the crescent moon to determine the first day of the holy month. If the moon is not visible, as expected, the first day of Ramadan will be a day later. Most Indonesians – Muslims comprise nearly 90 percent of the country’s 277 million people – are expected to follow the government’s official date.
Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic group, Muhammadiyah, which counts more than 60 million members, said that according to its astronomical calculations Ramadan will begin on Thursday.
During Ramadan, Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual intercourse from sunrise until sunset. Even a tiny sip of water or a puff of smoke is enough to invalidate the fast. At night, family and friends gather and feast in a festive atmosphere.
The fasting is aimed at bringing the faithful closer to God and reminding them of the suffering of the poor. Muslims are expected to strictly observe daily prayers and engage in heightened religious contemplation. They are also urged to refrain from gossip, fighting or cursing during the holy month.
Although Indonesia has more Muslims than any other country in the world, its Ramadan traditions have been influenced by other religions. Nyadran is a Javanese ritual heavily influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism that involves visiting ancestors’ gravesites to pay respect.
Each year, thousands of villagers who live on the slopes of Mount Merapi in Central Java visit cemeteries to welcome Ramadan. In the ritual, people clean and decorate gravesites and make prayers and offerings. They bring various foods in bamboo containers that they eat together after praying.
In other regions on the main island of Java, including in the capital, Jakarta, Muslims also mark the holy month by cleaning their relatives’ graves, scattering flower petals on them and praying for the deceased.
After evening prayers, many boys and girls across Jakarta parade through the streets of the densely populated neighborhoods to welcome the holy month. They carry torches and play Islamic songs accompanied by the beat of the rebana, the Arabic handheld percussion instrument.
People in Indonesia’s deeply conservative Aceh province celebrate the beginning of Ramadan with Meugang festivities by slaughtering animals such as oxen or buffalo, as well as smaller animals like chicken and ducks. The meat is then cooked and shared with family, friends and even the poor and orphans in a communal feast that aims to bring the community together.
Hundreds of residents in Tangerang, a city just outside Jakarta, flock to the Cisadane River to bathe in a tradition that involves washing one’s hair with rice straw shampoo to welcome the holy fasting month with a symbolic spiritual cleansing.
Islam follows a lunar calendar, so Ramadan begins around a week and a half earlier each year. At the end of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate the joyous Eid Al-Fitr holiday, when children often receive new clothes and gifts.
Indonesia’s Trade Ministry has said prices of imported staple foods including wheat, sugar, beef and soybeans have increased sharply this year as a result of rising global commodity prices and supply chain disruptions, particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But many people say the rise in prices not only impacts imported foods but also local commodities like rice, eggs, chili, palm oil and onions. Gas and electricity prices have also gone up. Many blame the government for this.
Some Muslims worry how they will cope financially during Ramadan this year.
“Prices are going up every week. How come the government cannot help with this? Anything to do with cooking is rising,” said Yulia Ningsih, a mother of two who lives in Jakarta. “I worry that rising food and energy costs will impact Ramadan celebrations.”

British son harmed himself over false sex claims made against his father

British son harmed himself over false sex claims made against his father
Updated 22 March 2023

British son harmed himself over false sex claims made against his father

British son harmed himself over false sex claims made against his father
  • Father reveals in a TV interview how he walked in on his son slicing his arms

DUBAI: A British son reportedly self-harmed over false sex abuse allegations that a 22-year-old woman made against his father.

Eleanor Williams was earlier sentenced to eight and a half years’ jail when a British court convicted her of perverting justice after she falsely accused businessman Mohammed Ramzan, from Cumbria, of leading an Asian grooming gang.

Ramzan and other men were victims of false allegations and rape and abuse claims made against them by the 22-year-old via a Facebook post. The social media post included graphic images of injuries she alleged that she had sustained.

On Tuesday, the Daily Mail reported that Ramzan and Jordan Trengove, another innocent man who was a victim of the woman’s allegations, had been pushed to the brink of suicide.

In an interview with 5 News, Ramzan, a father of four, shared the agonies that his family has been through due to the false allegations. He said that he almost took his own life and revealed how he walked in on his son self-harming one evening.

Media reports cited Ramzan telling TV journalist Dan Walker how he found his son slicing his arms.

“I have gone to use the loo, his room’s next door, there’s lights on and I walked in, and you see your son and ... because we were all keeping each other strong, but we weren’t exposing anything how it was affecting.”

The 43-year-old businessman was falsely accused by Williams of grooming her from the age of 12, putting her to work in brothels in Amsterdam and trying to sell her.

“And there was a point of where everybody, my sons wanting to move out, and I was like, ‘No, we’re not,’” the father was quoted as saying.  

“And my son he turned around and goes, ‘You know, you Dad, you’re known as a paedo. Everyone claims, everywhere on social media, my friends, this is a horrible town, why have you moved us here?’”

Ramzan went on to say that he once smashed a bottle and tried to slice his neck in front of his family and a friend, who grabbed his hand and stopped him.

The accused had also given the police an account of being taken to Blackpool, where she alleged Ramzan threatened her and where she was taken to different addresses and forced to have sex with men. 

Ramzan said that his family would remain in Barrow but admitted he was concerned that far-right supporters on social media were still saying that Williams’ claims were true. 

The family have decided to start a campaign to change the UK’s social media laws, and are looking at setting up a foundation as they work to “move forward.” 

Ramzan also plans to sue police and the Home Office over the torment that the investigation caused him.


Putin says Chinese proposal could be basis for peace in Ukraine

Putin says Chinese proposal could be basis for peace in Ukraine
Updated 22 March 2023

Putin says Chinese proposal could be basis for peace in Ukraine

Putin says Chinese proposal could be basis for peace in Ukraine
  • Xi’s state visit is a major boost to Putin as he squares off against what he sees as a hostile West bent on inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday that Chinese proposals could be used as the basis of a peace settlement in Ukraine, but that the West and Kyiv were not yet ready.
In a joint statement at the end of Xi’s state visit to Moscow, the two men cautioned against any steps that might push the Ukraine conflict into an “uncontrollable phase,” adding pointedly that there could be no winners in a nuclear war.
Putin accused Western powers of fighting “to the last Ukrainian,” while Xi reiterated China’s “neutral position” on Ukraine and called for dialogue.
“We believe that many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China are consonant with Russian approaches and can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement when they are ready for that in the West and in Kyiv. However, so far we see no such readiness from their side,” Putin said.
China’s proposal — a 12-point paper calling for a de-escalation and eventual cease-fire in Ukraine — lacks details on how to end the war.
The United States has been dismissive of the Chinese proposal, given Beijing’s refusal to condemn Russia over Ukraine, and says a cease-fire now would lock in Russian territorial gains and give Putin’s army more time to regroup.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Putin calls China Russia’s most important economic partner

• Xi is on a state visit to Moscow

• Putin says the West is not ready for peace in Ukraine

Ukraine has welcomed China’s diplomatic involvement but says Russia must pull out its troops and underlines the importance of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

BURGEONING TIES
The Kremlin talks were intended to cement the “no limits” partnership the two leaders announced last February, less than three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.
They signed a series of documents on a “strategic cooperation” after what Putin described as “successful and constructive” talks showing China was clearly now Russia’s most important economic partner.
“I am convinced that our multi-faceted cooperation will continue to develop for the good of the peoples of our countries,” Putin said in televised remarks.
Xi’s state visit is a major boost to Putin as he squares off against what he sees as a hostile West bent on inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia.
The Chinese leader visited Moscow days after an international court issued an arrest warrant for Putin over Russia’s actions in Ukraine, where Russian forces have made little progress in recent months despite suffering heavy losses.
In their joint statement, Xi and Putin also called on the United States to stop “undermining global strategic security” and to cease developing a global missile defense system.
While pledging more regular joint military drills, however, the two leaders said the closer relationship between the two countries was not directed against any third nation and that it did not constitute a “military-political alliance.”

POWER OF SIBERIA DETAILS UNFINISHED
Putin said that Russia, China and Mongolia had completed “all agreements” on finishing Russia’s coveted pipeline to ship Russian gas to China, and that Moscow was ready to increase oil exports to Beijing.
But a joint statement after the talks said only that the parties involved in the pipeline — which Putin has called just before Xi’s visit as “the deal of the century” — “will make efforts to advance work on the study and approval” of the pipeline.
The English versions of Xi’s two statements issued after the meetings do not mention the pipeline.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters that there are still details that need to be worked out.
“Instructions were given to companies to work out the details of the project in detail and to sign it as soon as possible,” Russia’s state RIA news agency cited Novak as saying.
“Orders have been given to ensure the agreement’s conditions. We hope that it will be this year.”
The planned Power of Siberia 2 pipeline would deliver 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year from Russia to China via Mongolia. Moscow put forward the idea many years ago, but it has gained urgency as Russia turns to China to replace Europe as its major gas customer.
Russia’s Gazprom already supplies gas to China through an existing Power of Siberia pipeline under a 30-year, $400 billion deal launched at the end of 2019. That pipeline spans some 3,000 km (1,865 miles).
Russia’s gas exports to China are still a small fraction of the record 177 bcm it delivered to Europe in 2018-19.
Putin said on Tuesday Russia would deliver at least 98 bcm of gas to China by 2030.

 


US dismisses China mediation on Ukraine as not ‘impartial’

US dismisses China mediation on Ukraine as not ‘impartial’
Updated 21 March 2023

US dismisses China mediation on Ukraine as not ‘impartial’

US dismisses China mediation on Ukraine as not ‘impartial’
  • White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby: ‘I don’t think you can reasonably look at China as impartial in any way’
  • China has presented a 12-point position paper on the war which includes a call for dialogue and respect for all countries’ territorial sovereignty

WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday it does not see China as capable of being an impartial mediator between Moscow and Kyiv over the war in Ukraine.
It was the most direct US criticism yet of China’s aim to be a middleman in efforts to end the war.
“I don’t think you can reasonably look at China as impartial in any way,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
He noted that China has refrained from criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has continued to buy Russian oil even as the West piles sanctions on Moscow’s energy industry to starve the Kremlin of money to pay for the war.
China, Kirby added, also “keeps parroting the Russian propaganda” to the effect that the US and other countries in the West are to blame for the war for giving such strong support to pro-western Ukraine over the years that Russia felt threatened and justified in invading.
In a summit rich with red carpet pomp, Chinese President Xi Jingping was visiting Russia Tuesday and met with President Vladimir Putin, with the war in Ukraine high on their agenda.
After talks Tuesday they hailed what they called a “new era” in Russian-Chinese relations.
Kirby said the two were linked not so much by an alliance but rather “a marriage of convenience, because that’s what I think it is.”
China has presented a 12-point position paper on the war which includes a call for dialogue and respect for all countries’ territorial sovereignty.
Putin said he was open to talks on Ukraine and praised Beijing’s position paper.
Kirby said Russia and China “want to change the rules of that game,” meaning the rules based international order.
Still, the United States wants to maintain channels of communication with China, he said.
Kirby added that he is not aware of China having provided military assistance to Russia. The United States has said China is considering this big step, but China denies it.


9 killed as strong earthquake rattles Pakistan, Afghanistan

Rescue worker unload earthquake victims from an ambulance at a hospital in Saidu Sharif, a town Pakistan's Swat valley, Tuesday,
Rescue worker unload earthquake victims from an ambulance at a hospital in Saidu Sharif, a town Pakistan's Swat valley, Tuesday,
Updated 22 March 2023

9 killed as strong earthquake rattles Pakistan, Afghanistan

Rescue worker unload earthquake victims from an ambulance at a hospital in Saidu Sharif, a town Pakistan's Swat valley, Tuesday,
  • Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority in the northwest, said at least 19 mudbrick homes collapsed in remote areas

ISLAMABAD: A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rattled much of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday, sending panicked residents fleeing from homes and offices and frightening people even in remote villages. At least nine people died.
More than 100 people were brought to hospitals in the Swat valley region of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in a state of shock, Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s emergency services told The Associated Press.
“These terrified people collapsed, and some of them collapsed because of the shock of the earthquake,” he said. Faizi said most were later discharged from the hospital.
Faizi and other officials said nine people were killed when roofs collapsed in various parts of northwestern Pakistan. Dozens of others were injured in the quake, which was centered in Afghanistan and also felt in bordering Tajikistan. The earthquake triggered landslides in some of the mountainous areas, disrupting traffic.
Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority in the northwest, said at least 19 mudbrick homes collapsed in remote areas. “We are still collecting data about the damages,” he said.
The powerful tremors sent many people fleeing their homes and offices in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, some reciting verses from the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book. Media reports suggested cracks had appeared in some apartment buildings in the city.
The scene was repeated in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan.
“The quake was so strong and terrifying, we thought houses are collapsing on us, people were all shouting and were shocked,” said Shafiullah Azimi, a Kabul resident.
The US Geological Survey said the center of the magnitude 6.5 quake was located 40 kilometers (25 miles) south-southeast of Jurm in Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindukush region, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan. It said the depth of the earthquake was 187.6 kilometers (116 miles).
Rakhshinda Tauseed, a physician, said she was at her hospital in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore when the earthquake hit. “I quickly asked patients to go move to a safer place,” she said.
Khurram Shahzad, a resident in Pakistan’s garrison city of Rawalpindi, said he was having dinner with his family at a restaurant when the walls started swaying.
“I quickly thought that it is a big one, and we left the restaurant and came out,” he told The Associated Press by phone. He said he saw hundreds of people standing on the streets.
The situation was similar in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan, where people were seen standing outside their homes and offices.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a statement said he asked disaster management officials to remain vigilant to handle any situation.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, tweeted that the Ministry of Public Health had ordered all health centers to be on standby.
The region is prone to violent seismic upheavals. A magnitude 7.6 quake in 2005 killed thousands of people in Pakistan and Kashmir.
Last year in southeastern Afghanistan, a 6.1 magnitude quake struck a rugged, mountainous region, flattening stone and mud-brick homes. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers put the total death toll from the quake at 1,150, with hundreds more injured, while the UN has offered a lower estimate of 770.