"The Kuwaiti government seems to be more flexible on the issue of illegal foreign workers now as the industries there believe that a vacuum in workforce will be created if these workers are deported," a foreign ministry official told The Daily Star yesterday.

The two-month amnesty period declared by Kuwait in April allowing the irregular foreign workers to leave the country without penalty ended on June 30, but not many Bangladeshi irregular workers returned home, he said.

Foreign ministry officials say that there are some 5,000 Bangladeshi illegal workers in Kuwait but the manpower recruiting agencies estimate the number at around 30,000.

"Although we did not receive any official letters from Kuwait, we are convinced that the country now prefers to regularise the workers instead of extending the amnesty period," the official said requesting anonymity.

The official said that Bangladesh has always tried to convince the Kuwaiti government to consider the irregular workers' case on humanitarian grounds.

Since the declaration of the amnesty in April, Bangladesh embassy in Kuwait has been in touch with the Kuwaiti authorities about the issue of irregular workers, he said adding that the Kuwaiti authorities have responded to the requests positively. Moreover, the foreign ministry discussed the issue with the Kuwaiti embassy in Dhaka.

Sources in the foreign ministry and expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry said that the workers become illegal due to various reasons including change of jobs for higher wages and for living there without renewing job contracts.

Manpower migration experts say that high cost of migration and low wages force many migrant workers in the Middle East countries including Kuwait to change their jobs, which turn them into illegal workers.

In many cases, the employers do not pay as per their commitments forcing the workers to leave their jobs and join new ones leaving their passports with former legal employers, they observed.

Kuwait has stopped hiring Bangladeshi workers in the last quarter of 2006 without showing any reason.

Manpower agencies said a section of Bangladeshi workers there are involved in illegal visa trade, forging of work permits and even in immoral activities. All these might have prompted the Kuwaiti authorities to go for such a step, they added.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti Labour Minister Sabah Khaled Al-Hamd Al Sabah during a recent meeting with Labour and Employment Adviser Anwarul Iqbal in Geneva said that both the countries are facing various difficulties in labour recruitment for illegal activities of some recruiting agencies.

He told the labour and employment adviser that Kuwait is going to formulate a law on employing foreign workers and only then will start discussion with Bangladesh on new recruitment from Bangladesh.