The authorities must ensure greater accessibility and efficient use
Since the onset of the pandemic, the fate of migrant workers from Bangladesh have hung in the balance. Time and again, we have seen reports of our migrant workers struggling to survive in host countries, or being forced to return to Bangladesh after losing their jobs or failing to renew their visas/contracts. According to data from the Expatriates’ Welfare Ministry, about 2.72 lakh Bangladeshi expatriates returned home between April 1 and November 11 this year after the coronavirus struck.
Since their return, there have been growing concerns about how these migrants, whose remittances have hugely contributed to our economy over the years, would support themselves and their families in an already depressed economy. Therefore, the decision to offer a Tk 200 crore special loan package for coronavirus-affected returnee migrants’ reintegration, allocated by the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board and disbursed through the Probashi Kallyan Bank, was welcomed across the board. Even then, experts warned that this amount was woefully inadequate given the far-reaching impact of the fallout on households and communities dependent on these migrants’ incomes.
Against this backdrop, it is extremely frustrating to find out that so far, the Probashi Kallyan Bank has disbursed around Tk 9 crore from this Tk 200 crore fund, and till November 20, the disbursed amount was only about Tk 4.6 crore. Experts have cited the terms and conditions of the loans as one of the reasons behind the poor response, saying the four percent interest rate for a loan up to Tk 5 lakh is too high considering the financial condition of the returnees. Besides, the grace period against loans in most ventures is limited to one month only, which means the returnees have to start paying instalments almost immediately after taking the loan. Migrant rights organisations have also found that government support mechanisms for the returnees—like how one should prepare a proposal to get a loan from the special fund—were unavailable at the upazila level.
It is unacceptable that our authorities have thrown our migrant workers in the deep end like this. A survey from BRAC suggests that almost 87 percent of returnee migrants have been left without income opportunities—especially when their labour is one of the driving forces behind our progress towards eventually becoming a middle-income country. Can we truly be proud of our achievements if the workers who make up the backbone of our economy are living hand to mouth during a time of crisis? The authorities must step up and ensure that there is greater accessibility to these finances, as well as training and support to returnee migrants to ensure that they are actually able to put these loans to good use. In the long run, we must also enter into negotiations with host countries and explore the option of re-migration, which, according to an IOM study, is the preferred option for the majority of returnee migrants.
