Returnee migrants face livelihood crisis

The number of migrant workers returning to the country this year is five times higher than the normal period. From January till 24 October this year, around 250,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers have returned home. In 2019 the number was just 65,000.

Most of these migrants have returned during the coronavirus outbreak, having been laid off from their jobs. Some of them had come home on leave and now are unable to return because of the pandemic. Then there are those who had to return as they were undocumented.

And the chances of this huge number of migrant workers going back to overseas employment have shrunk. At the same time, they are not finding jobs in the country either. Without any income for an extended time, the families of these migrants are in a crisis.

Mansur Ahmed of Narsingdi is one such worker bereft of income. He told Prothom Alo 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.

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.

While there are government and private initiatives to send workers on overseas employment, nothing is being done for their rehabilitation back home.

Managing director of the research organisation dealing with migration issues, Centre for Development Communication (DEVCOM), Hasan Imam, told Prothom Alo 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.

Mostly from the Middle East

Most of the migrant workers are returning home from the Middle East. And this had stepped up since the outbreak of coronavirus.

Air travel shut down around the world in March since the emergence of the pandemic. And from April, special arrangements were made for the migrant workers to return. 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. Speaking to Prothom Alo, director of the Bangladesh Migrant Women Workers Association, Farida Yasmin, said they are receiving 30 to 40 phone calls a day from woman migrant workers, mostly about unemployment. She said that families of these returning women migrant workers are suffering with no source of income.

No assistance

Persons involved in the sector from the very outset had been urging the authorities to create a database of returnee migrant workers. Finally from 6 October the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) began registering the migrants. The expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry is considering assistance for these migrants who had come on vacation and were unable to return and those who are helpless upon return.

Earlier on 1 July the ministry issued letters to the district and upazila administration, directing them to extend humanitarian assistance to the helpless, suffering and poor migrants who had returned from overseas.

The migrants who have returned say they have not received any assistance. Prothom Alo spoke to 18 returnee migrants and they all claimed that they had not received any form of help. 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 told Prothom Alo that he found no work at home so far. His nine-member family was in a crisis.

The government has created at Tk 7 billion (Tk 700 crore) fund for the returnee migrants. The Wage Earners Welfare Board in July allocated Tk 2 billion (Tk 200 crore) to the Probashi Kallyan Bank. Another Tk 5 billion (Tk 500 crore) will be added to this fund. The migrants will receive loans of Tk 200,000 to Tk 500,000 each at 4 per cent simple interest rates. Applications were submitted from July but very little of the fund has been released so far. Only Tk 10 million has been released till date.

The migrants say that they had contacted the bank but were not being able to avail the loans due to complications in submitting the required documents. A certain Ripon Ahmed of Mymensingh said he had submitted all the papers and the bank had assured him of the loan, but he eventually didn’t receive it. Now he is trying to return to Saudi Arabia.

Director general of BMET Shamsul Alam told Prothom Alo, the migrants who had returned had acquired some skills while working overseas. They will be given skilled worker certificates after three days of training so that they may be able to go overseas in the future as skilled workers. And those who wanted to take up any enterprise in the country would be provided with loans. If they applied, arrangements would be made for various training for them too.

Livelihood crisis for 70 per cent

Three surveys highlight 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. Some migrant workers had been given financial assistance under BRAC’s migration programme so that they could start up businesses.

Concerned persons said that the returning migrant workers wanted to go overseas to work again. This was revealed in a number of recent surveys too. With so many workers eager to go abroad, the risk of human trafficking has increased.

Chairman of the NGO Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program, Shakirul Islam, speaking to Prothom Alo, said that in most cases the returnee migrants do not find any employment back home. They are driven by need and despair to try to look for means to go abroad again, even if they have to take loans. Many of them voluntarily go to the human traffickers. If the present situation continues, there will be more human trafficking than migration in the days to come.

Limited scope of migration

According to the last workforce survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), there were 60.8 million (6 crore 8 lakh) employed workers in 2017 and 2.7 million (27 lakh) were unemployed. An estimated 2 million (20 lakh) to 2.2 million (22 lakh) workers enter the labour market in the country every year. Of them, around 1.3 million (13 lakh) find employment within the country. And around 700,000 go abroad from Bangladesh every year in search of employment. They do not put pressure on the local labour market.

From January to March this year, only 180,000 workers managed to go overseas from Bangladesh. Going abroad on employment has been more or less completely shut down since then. Even those who had already been working in Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Middle East are unable to go back there. The doors of Malaysia’s labour market are shut. It is the same in other countries.

Many have lost their jobs within the country too. The income of working people and small entrepreneurs has decreased. So the returnee migrants are not finding work in the local labour market either.

Founder chair of RMMRU, Tasneem Siddiqui, told Prothom 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.

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir.