In this Star photo taken on August 27, 2013, Bangladeshi workers stand in line to enter Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, before flying to a foreign country for jobs.

Following a seven-year ban on most Bangladeshi workers, it has been decided to reopen the entry of Bangladeshi workers coming to Kuwait in February.

Kuwait Times published a reports quoting Bangladeshi Ambassador to Kuwait Major General Mohammed Ashhabuddin.

Ashahbuddin said that Bangladesh’s foreign minister recently met his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah in Abu Dhabi where they discussed the resumption of bringing in labourers from Bangladesh.

The ambassador said the total number of the Bangladeshi community in Kuwait is 190,000, and that they all lead a decent life.

He said agricultural workers continued to come to Kuwait during the ban and 200-300 Bangladeshis had recently entered Kuwait for that reason.

Separately, member of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee MP Kamel Al-Awadhi commended the statement made by Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah in which he stressed that the ministry will not let the bank warranty condition by the Indian embassy to bring Indian domestic labor to Kuwait go unanswered.

“This statement was made by a patriotic person and a class A statesman who is fully aware of his fellow-citizens’ concerns”, stressed Awadhi, noting that because some GCC states had agreed to the condition does not mean that Kuwait has to accept it too.

“We have our laws and will not have citizens prosecuted except by our judiciary,” he vowed.

 Awadhi also strongly hailed a statement made by the Interior Ministry’s assistant undersecretary for citizenship and passport affairs Major General Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah in which he expressed intention to stop bringing manpower from India in response to the Indian decision.

“This will be the best answer made at the right time,” he stressed.