The coronavirus pandemic that brought global human mobility to a near standstill for most of last year hit the country’s vast labour migration sector hard.
Yearly overseas employment dropped by nearly five lakh from what it was in 2019 — with a little over two lakh workers getting jobs abroad by mid-December last year.
Some 3.76 lakh workers returned home in eight and a half months since April, says government data.
Moreover, an estimated 1.5 lakh workers who came home on holiday found it difficult to return to their workplaces due to suspension of regular air communications.
Thousands of migrant workers and their family members back home faced economic hardships because of the income and work opportunities lost due to the pandemic, according to surveys conducted by various migration-related organisations.
According to government estimates, more than one crore Bangladeshis live in over 160 countries.
COVID-19 IMPACT
Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world early last year, many Bangladeshi migrant workers faced economic hardships due to lockdowns enforced on economic activities by the host countries.
Bangladeshi workers returned home in large numbers, either after job losses or seeing no job opportunities in the host countries.
Around 3.76 lakh Bangladeshi expatriates returned home between April 1 and December 17, according to expatriates’ welfare ministry data.
The returnees experienced reintegration challenges, including difficulties in securing employment, financial problems, and health-related issues, says an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) report published in August last year.
In its study, the United Nations migration agency said around 70 percent of 1,486 returnees in 12 migration-prone districts were found to be unemployed.
A Brac study in May said around 87 percent of 558 returnees did not have income opportunities amid the pandemic.
The average monthly household expenditure of migrant workers’ families dropped from Tk 17,000 to Tk 7,300 due to the pandemic, a Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) study, conducted on 200 households, revealed in July.
The virus outbreak in the country in early March 2020 forced the government to suspend air communications with leading labour-receiving countries, including six Gulf countries — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Oman — which account for 76.93 percent of Bangladeshi migrants’ workplaces.
Around 1.82 lakh workers went abroad till March 2020. Of the host countries, Saudi Arabia employed the highest 1.33 lakh workers, followed by 17,398 workers in Oman, according to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) data.
Besides, around 85,000 visas and visa papers were in possession of some 320 agencies before the pandemic hit the country, says the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira). With regular flights suspended, the fate of those workers remained uncertain.
The suspension of air communications also meant many migrant workers, who came home on holiday, were stuck here.
Around 1-1.5 lakh expatriates came home between January and March prior to the pandemic, says Brac Migration Programme, citing data of the immigration authorities at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and the home ministry.
The suspension was extended in phases until June when air communications resumed on a limited scale. However, many workers found their visas and work permits expired by then.
In September, a large number of Saudi Arabia-bound workers took to the streets for plane tickets and extension of their visas and iqamas (residency permit) after the kingdom resumed international flight operations.
Several thousand workers based in Malaysia and Qatar also took to the streets demanding government steps to ensure their return to their workplaces.
Although intense government engagement eventually solved the problem, it created a backlog in the flight schedule which was easing with the operation of additional flights — until December 21, when Saudi Arabia put a fresh embargo on air communications, creating further worry for these workers.
REMITTANCE SOARING
Migrant workers’ contribution is considered one of the main pillars of the country’s economy.
In the 2019-20 fiscal year, the country received $18.2 billion in remittance sent by migrant workers, said the expatriates’ welfare ministry, referring to Bangladesh Bank data.
In the first five months of the current fiscal year, migrant workers remitted around $10.9 billion — $3.1 billion more than the remittance received in the same period of the last fiscal year, it said.
In a report published in this newspaper in October, experts attributed the rise in remittance to the government’s two percent cash incentive for remitters.
They also said expatriate Bangladeshis in North America and Europe now send in a robust amount of remittance as interest rates on deposits in those countries have dropped to almost zero in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus-driven economic slump.
Experts, however, warned against complacency and advocated for building on the rising trend of inward remittance flow to achieve a sustainable future growth target in the sector.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
In April, the government announced loan support for migrant workers and a Tk 200 crore special loan fund was created by the Probashi Kalyan Bank, after borrowing the money from the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board.
However, the government’s initiative largely drew poor response among the returnees, according to rights groups, due to the tough conditions set for getting the loan and lack of awareness about it.
Also, the government created another loan scheme of Tk 500 crore to support returnees’ economic reintegration.
The bank disbursed around Tk 18 crore to 443 returnees under the two schemes, Ahmed Munirus Saleheen, secretary of the expatriates’ welfare ministry, told the media on December 18.
The government also disbursed around Tk 9.85 crore through various missions for food, cash and medical kits as immediate support to migrant workers at the early stage of the pandemic in host countries.
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Migrant rights activists called upon the government to continue its diplomatic efforts to hold on to existing markets and explore new ones.
They said once the international labour market becomes normal, both outbound and returnee migrant workers should be provided with Covid-19 vaccines, once available in the country, to save them from being subject to discrimination.
Shariful Hasan, head of Brac Migration Programme, said it is unlikely the overseas employment situation will regain normalcy anytime soon considering the present global Covid-19 situation.
“So, what we can do by this time is we can prepare ourselves. We can make our people skilled and we can go for new labour markets,” he said.
Shariful said it is also essential to address problems in migration governance in the country, especially lowering migration costs which in Bangladesh is higher compared to that in other labour-sending countries.
Besides, the government needs to ensure tests and quarantine for the returnees, he added.
Syed Saiful Haque, co-chair of Bangladesh Civil Society for Migrants, said besides exploring new markets and holding on to existing ones, the government needs to continue diplomatic efforts for visa extension of stranded workers so that once the opportunity arises, they can go back to their workplaces.
He said migrant workers have been treated as a “medium of Covid-19 transmission” in some host countries.
“So, vaccination for outbound workers should be ensured so that they do not face discrimination and xenophobia abroad,” he added.
Also, vaccines should be provided to returnee migrants and the government has to monitor the vaccination process, he said, adding that the United Nations also put importance on ensuring vaccines for migrants.
Expatriates’ Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad, in a statement on December 18, said, “Amid the coronavirus pandemic situation, the ministry has prioritised creating skilled workers as per demand of global labour market in post-coronavirus situation, alongside overall protection including socio-economic reintegration of the migrant workers and their family members at home and abroad, holding on existing labour markets, exploring new markets, and reopening the closed ones.”
The statement was made during a press conference marking International Migrants Day on December 18.
