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Former secretary general of the Bangladesh Caterers Association, UK, ATMW Saad Ghazi has urged the British government not to send 5000 semi-skilled Bangladeshi restaurant workers back home.
He was addressing a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity auditorium in the city Friday.
Saad Ghazi, also a director of the Bangladesh-British Chamber of Commerce (BBCC), UK, urged both the Bangladesh and the British governments to settle the issue through an effective dialogue.
The British Government has recently decided to send back 5000 semi-skilled Bangladeshi catering and restaurant workers as their period of one-year work permit is coming to an end, he said.
"Considering the high demand of skilled workers in catering and restaurant services in England, the British Government might extend the period of work permits of these workers," he said adding that the Bengali food earned a good reputation in England for its extra-ordinary flavour and taste.
The period of work permits of most of the workers will expire by the end of the current month while the period of some of the workers' had already been over, Saad said.
He, however, urged the Bangladesh government to set up more catering institutions in the country to train up the local people as there were huge employment opportunities for skilled workers in this sector in England.
"The annual turnover from restaurant and catering services in England is higher than that of its three main industries -- shipping, coal and steel. Millions of Bangladeshi skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers are working in at least 14,000 restaurants," he said while he was citing the statistics.
The annual turnover from the catering and restaurant services in England is 3.5 billion pounds. Some 99 per cent workers employed in restaurants are from Bangladesh, he added.
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