Rehabilitate women workers back from Saudi Arabia

Our women are still going to Saudi Arabia to work there are housemaids. They go there in the hope of building a better future for themselves and their families. However, they are also returning in continuous streams, having faced physical, mental and sexual abuse by their employers. Last Tuesday 42 such women returned back to Bangladesh. Prior to that, 65 returned on 13 September.

What fate do these hapless women face upon returning to their own country after their dreams for a better life have been smashed in Saudi Arabia? According to director of Bangladesh women migrant workers association, Sumaiya Islam, many of the returning women do not want to go back to their families. And many of the families do not want to take them back.

This is a sad state of affairs. The women who are unwilling to return to their families perhaps feel abandoned. They may feel their return will stigmatise their families. If that is so, we should just think about how deep the despair of such a woman can be if she imagines herself to be discarded. As for the women who are not accepted back by their families, they are helpless, without even any shelter. The state must come forward to the rescue of all these women. The government must take responsibility to rehabilitate these women.

There is no government programme at the moment to rehabilitate these women migrant workers who are returning from Saudi Arabia. If these women approach the concerned desk at the airport in Dhaka upon their return, they are either sent to hospital or to their homes. The government has no other initiative other than that.

The government must take steps for these women. It must first be understood that these women are not responsible for the bitter experience they have undergone in Saudi Arabia. No matter what financial losses they may have incurred, their physical, mental and social suffering is immense. They need long-term rehabilitation, vocational training and employment. The concerned recruiting agencies should also be made to provide them with financial compensation.