During a bilateral meeting with Bangladesh's Labour and Employment Adviser Anwarul Iqbal on Wednesday in Geneva, Sabah Khaled AL-Hamd Al Sabah also expressed annoyance over some unscrupulous recruiting agencies in Bangladesh, according to a message received in Dhaka yesterday.

Kuwait has not been hiring workers from Bangladesh for the last seven months.

In response to Kuwaiti minister, Adviser Anwarul Iqbal said it is an imperative to frame a law to ensure protection of workers going abroad.

Urging the Kuwaiti minister to withdraw the ban on hiring workers from Bangladesh, Iqbal said Dhaka is ready to extend full support to Kuwait for manpower export.

The Kuwaiti minister invited Bangladesh to attend a conference for sharing the experiences of the foreign workers employed in Gulf nations to be held either at the end of 2007 or at the beginning of 2008.

Kuwait allowed irregular foreign workers to leave the country without any penalty during May and June this year.

Following the declaration, Bangladesh approached Kuwait to regularise Bangladeshi workers or extend the amnesty period for them considering the workers' plight.

The foreign ministry officials recently told The Daily Star that Kuwait may entertain Bangladesh request.

According to foreign ministry officials, there are 5,000 irregular Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait, while the manpower businesses put the number at around 30,000.