Returnee migrants face livelihood crisis

Staff Reporter :
Bangladeshi expatriates who returned from their workplaces during Covid-19 pandemic are facing severe livelihood crisis.
The families of the returnee migrant workers are passing their days in miserable condition as they have lost their income.
Even though, the returnees are not finding any jobs in the country. Besides there is a little hope to get back their jobs in abroad.
Different surveys reveal the state of migrant workers returning back to Bangladesh during the pandemic. The survey report released by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) in August said that 70 per cent of those who had returned were facing a livelihood crisis.
The Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) published findings of their survey in July. It showed that 61 per cent of the migrant workers’ families had totally stopped receiving remittance.
Earlier in May, a survey run by BRAC showed that 87 per cent of the migrants who had returned home had no source of income.
Izaz Ahmed of Tangail is one such worker bereft of income. He said that he has been unemployed for the past eight months since he returned from Qatar. His savings have been exhausted and now he and his family are pitched into uncertainty.
Zakir Hossain of Shariatpur had been in Kuwait for 13 years. After being unemployed for 5 months during the Coronavirus outbreak, he returned to the country on August. He said that he found no work at home so far. His nine-member family was in a crisis.
From January till 24 October this year, around 250,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers have returned home. In 2019 the number was just 65,000.
The number of returnee migrant workers has continued to multiply over the past couple of months. In the first 24 days of October, around 60,000 migrants have returned. Now on an average, around 2,500 workers are returning per day. If this trend continues, it is apprehended that by the year end the number of returning migrant workers will cross 400,000.
Most of the migrant workers are returning home from the Middle East. And this had stepped up since the outbreak of Coronavirus.
According to sources of the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, around 226,000 migrants returned from 1 April till 24 October.
Records of the expatriate welfare desk at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport state that the majority of the migrants have been forced to return as they had lost their jobs. The visas have expired of many workers returning from the Middle East. Some do not have iqama (work permits) and some were sent home with assurances that they would be taken back when things returned to normal.
The most returnees are coming back from Saudi Arabia, totalling around 61,000. Next among the countries from where the migrants are returning are UAE, Qatar, Oman, Maldives, Kuwait, Malaysia, Iraq and Lebanon.
There are 25,436 women among the returnees.
Managing Director of the Research Organisation dealing with migration issues, Centre for Development Communication (DEVCOM), Hasan Imam, said that everyone was working to send workers overseas, but there were hardly any initiatives to create employment for those who had returned from abroad. He said Philippines and Indonesia had long ago begun this rehabilitation work. This was not just the task of the government. Everyone needs to pay attention to the matter, he said.
Founder chair of RMMRU, Tasneem Siddiqui, said Alo that plans must be made in keeping with the problems of the returnee migrants. It would be good if jobs could be arranged for them. And if they are to take up business, they need to be provided with the required training. This needs to be done speedily. She said that the families of the migrant workers were suffering acutely with no source of income.