ANKARA 

Over 50,000 Bangladeshi professionals have lost their jobs following the shutdown of USAID-funded projects in the country, an association of the unemployed professionals said on Tuesday.

The termination of thousands of USAID (The United States Agency for International Development) foreign assistance grants in January has led to the closure of 55 out of 59 programs in Bangladesh.

At a news conference in the capital, Dhaka, Zinat Ara Afroze, convener of the Association of Unemployed Development Professionals (AUDP), said that more than 50,000 professionals involved in these projects and linked projects lost jobs and the country lost development assistance worth $700 million, the local English newspaper The Daily Star reported.

On Jan 25, USAID Bangladesh, in a letter to its project implementing partners, stated that, along with other countries, the agency was declaring an immediate cessation or suspension of any work in Bangladesh.

*Writing by Aamir Latif