714 women return as corpses

Shakila Khatun of Jhenaidah died after one and a half years of living in Saudi Arabia. She was around 20 years old. Her corpse arrived in the country last year, and ‘natural death’ was mentioned in the documents.

Shakila’s uncle Momin Mia told Prothom Alo, “It was said from Saudi Arabia that Shakila has suffered a natural death. There was no investigation after the body was brought back home. So, we have been forced to accept that.”

He however said that after going to Saudi, Shakila talked about being tortured, on the phone at different occasions.

According to non-government organisation BRAC’s statistics, based on data collected from the government, 714 Bangladeshi women workers have returned as corps from various Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, in the past seven years.

What’s unusual is that natural death, brain hemorrhage and suicide have been shown as the cause of death in majority of the cases.

It’s mandatory for workers to go through a health check-up before going abroad. If they have any deadly and critical illness, they aren’t supposed to pass the health checkup.

So there is a question concerning why there are so many natural deaths. Relatives of the dead workers have doubts about the 'natural death' written in their death certificates. No autopsy is done concerning these deaths though.

When asked, expatriate welfare and overseas employment minister Imran Ahmad told Prothom Alo that the situation has been created as yet to raise questions about the death of workers after their bodies arrive in the country.

It can turn into a challenge for the labour market if any objection regarding worker’s death is sent to the concerned country through investigation, after the body is returned. The embassy has to take action while the body is still inside the concerned country.

A figure of how many women’s cause of death is written ‘natural’ can be found at the expatriate and overseas employment ministry. According to their data, corpses of 404 women worker have arrived in the country within the time period of 2020 to 2022. Natural death was written on 227 of their death certificates, which is 56 per cent of the total deaths.

On the other hand as per BRAC’s migration programme records, corpse of 714 women workers have arrived in the country within the last seven years (2016 to 2022) and natural death was mentioned as the cause of death in 262 (37 per cent) of their death certificates.

The second leading cause of death was written cerebral hemorrhage or stroke. Deaths from this cause were reported in 138 of their cases, which consists 19 per cent of the total deaths. Suicide has been cited as the third leading cause with its mention on the death certificate of 116 (16 per cent) women workers.

Accident (108), illness (34), heart disease (23), murder (16), unknown disease (10), cancer (5) and corona (1) have been cited as the cause of death in case of the rest of them. Most of the female workers died in Saudi Arabia (202), Jordan (96), Lebanon (78) and Oman (58).

Refugee and Migratory Movements research Unit (RMMRU), an organisation working on migration, has conducted a study on the causes of death for 548 female workers, returning home since 2017 and the way out. According to the study, ‘Death of Female Migrant Workers in Destination Countries’, 69 per cent of the women workers suffered ‘natural’ and 31 per cent an ‘unnatural’ death. In this equation, they enlisted disease-induced deaths in the natural category.

RMMRU’s founding chairman Tasneem Siddiqui told Prothom Alo that a second autopsy is necessary for any death. Embassies have to raise questions about workers’ causes of death.

Relatives of the dead female workers and the migration experts say that physicians of the respective countries where the workers die, write up the death certificate. Bangladesh embassy sends that death certificate along with the corpse. There’s no autopsy outside of that.

BRAC’s statistics say that majority of the women workers suffering ‘natural death’ abroad were aged below 40.

RMMRU said that the average age of women, mentioned dying a natural death, was found to be 37 in their research. For instance, Habiganj’s Babita died in Saudi Arabia last year.

Her father Nurul Islam told Prothom Alo that Babita’s age was written as 28 years in the documents. But, her actual age was less than that. His daughter didn’t suffer from any major disease either.

In Saudi Arabia, Reena Begum, who went to work as domestic help, died on 12 June last year. She had gone to the country only 14 months prior to her death.

Reena’s husband Rahim Chowdhury told Prothom Alo, he talked to his wife for the last time on 8 June. After that, he kept finding his wife’s cellphone number switched off.

After a month or so, a man gave him the news of Reena’s death over the phone. Reena’s body was bought back home in October last year.

Rahim Chowdhury added that Reena wasn’t even 40. It is hardly credible that she had suffered a natural death. He doesn’t know with whom he can share this suspicion.

When asked if there were any injury marks on the corpse, he said that everyone advised on burying the corpse fast when it was brought back home. They could only see the face.

Former president of Obstetrical and Gynecological Society of Bangladesh (OGSB) professor Laila Arjumand Banu was asked whether the 'natural' death of so many women workers was natural or not.

She told Prothom Alo that the issue of ‘natural’ death is unnatural at the age, these women workers are going abroad for work. They are going abroad only after being certified physically well. So, it’s unacceptable that they are dying a natural death abroad.

She added that at this age, death can be caused by any congenital disease or in giving birth. However, that shouldn’t be the case for the women workers.

Even brain hemorrhage, cardiovascular diseases occur to people aged more than 40. So, it’s crucial to investigate each and every death of women workers.

Hajera Begum of Narsingdi’s Raipura died on 18 July last year, only after 11 days of travelling to Saudi Arabia. It was written in her death certificate that she has committed suicide.

Hajera was the mother of three young children. Hajera’s elder sister Nadira Begum along with them visited the Prothom Alo office last month.

She told Prothom Alo that Hajera was 26 years old. After her husband remarried and moved elsewhere, Hajera had gone abroad to support her children. Can that person commit suicide?

Many other relatives including Siddique Matubbar, father of a migrant women worker Reshma and Rokhsana Begum, elder sister of Zahura Begum questioned if it’s true that their close ones have committed suicide. Even if they did commit suicide, under which condition they did it, won’t those be investigated?

When asked, secretary of the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry Ahmed Munirus Salehin told Prothom Alo that beyond the attestation of concerned authority on the causes of death he has nothing to comment at this level.

Bangladeshi women go to Middle Eastern countries basically as domestic help. A total of 105,466 women had gone in 2022. 70 per cent of them went to Saudi Arabia, 16 per cent to Oman, 11 per cent to Jordan and the rest of them went to different other countries.

There are extensive allegations of women being tortured in the Arab countries, especially in Saudi Arabia.

For example, Panchagarh’s Sumi Akhter returned home from Saudi Arabia on 15 November of 2019. She was a victim or torture. She had then said in a video, “They’ll kill me. Take me back to the country. I want to return to my child and family.”

Sumi’s video went viral on Facebook. A case was filed on behalf of her family. Later, police of that country rescued Sumi from her employer’s house with the intervention of Bangladesh Consulate in Jeddah.

Just like Sumi, Khulna’s Abiron also had gone to Saudi Arabia but couldn’t return alive. On 24 October 2019, her body arrived home inside a coffin. In the certificate accompanying the body, ‘murder’ was written as the cause of her death.

In context of the widespread discussion and criticism about the murder, the court of the country sentenced the Saudi housewife to death in Abiron murder case on 15 February, 2021. She has appealed against this verdict, which is pending now.

Abiron's relatives are lucky that they are getting justice. Bangladesh doesn’t even demand an investigation into the death of the remaining Bangladeshi women and citizens.