Maldives Foreign Secretary Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed signed the deals on Tuesday in Dhaka on the sidelines of the visit of the country’s Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid.
The other MoU is on cooperation between Bangladesh Foreign Service Academy and the Foreign Service Institute of Maldives.
Expatriates’ Welfare Secretary Ahmed Munirus Saleheen signed the MoU on human resources placement while FSA Rector Syed Masud Mahmood Khundoker signed the other.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and his Maldivian counterpart Shahid held a bilateral meeting and a joint press conference at the state guest house Padma before the signing of the deals.
Shahid said the MoU on migrant workers will provide a “solid” framework for the recruitment of human resources from Bangladesh.
“I conveyed the important role played by Bangladeshi workers in the Maldives and the need to regularise undocumented workers in the goal of protecting their basic rights and wellbeing,” he added.
He thanked Momen and the government of Bangladesh for the assistance in continuing the regularisation and voluntary repatriation.
There is no official data about how many Bangladeshis are working in the archipelagic state, the foreign ministry estimates the number is around 80,000.
The figure was over 110,084 in 2019, Bangladesh Ambassador in the Maldives Rear Admiral Nazmul Hassan said, citing data from the Maldivian Ministry of Economic Development.
About 15,000 of them returned home in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ambassador said.
Momen said the Maldives will recruit some nurses from Bangladesh, noting that many Bangladeshi doctors are working in the country, including in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will visit Bangladesh in March during the celebrations of 50 years of independence and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, according to Momen.
The foreign ministers said they discussed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and reviewed ways which can further strengthen the ties.
Shahid said they exchanged views in exploring new avenues of cooperation, particularly in trade, investment, healthcare education, tourism and connectivity.
Momen said they have agreed upon many issues, including cooperation on climate change.
“Maldives is as vulnerable as we are because of this change,” he said.
“We also renewed our commitment to work together on global climate change in both mitigation and adaptation and called for full implementation of the Paris Agreement,” Shahid said.
He also reiterated his country’s support to Bangladesh on the issue of Rohingya refugees.
“Maldives has always advocated for the rights of Rohingya people. Together with the government of Gambia we seek accountability for the act of genocide committed against the Rohingya people,” Shahid said.
Both sides thanked each other for the cooperation to tackle the pandemic and vowed to extend further support on the issue.
The Maldivian foreign minister also visited the genocide corner at the venue Foreign Service Academy and Momen described the atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army during the 1971 Liberation War.
Shahid arrived in Dhaka on Monday on a four-day official visit. He is also expected to pay courtesy calls on President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Full details are available at the link below:
Source URL: Bing News :
