35% post-Covid migrants return as they didn’t get any jobs: Study

More than 35% migrant workers who went abroad after Covid-19 period had to return home within one to 16 months as they did not get either their promised jobs or any job at all.

Around 15.1% of these untimely returnees did not get any jobs while 20.1% did not receive the jobs and salaries they were promised in their destinations.

The study was conducted among 218 such returnees, mostly from Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Jordan, and Malaysia, who were interviewed between October and November this year.

The research findings were published at an event titled "Policy Discussion on Untimely Return" held in a city hotel yesterday.

The study was published at a time when Bangladesh achieved a significant milestone in labour migration, surpassing the 10 lakh mark in labour exports for the second consecutive year until October 2023.

Recently, Oman has suspended issuing all types of new visas to Bangladeshi citizens due to, according to sector insiders, an oversupply of workers from the South Asian nation.

Bangladeshi migrants and recruiters told The Business Standard that hundreds of workers have lost their jobs in the past six months in Oman, and many have been defrauded by middlemen and have not received their promised jobs.

Now, the allegations of those workers have been supported by the new study of RMMRU that has widely shown the bleak picture of labour migration.

As per the RMMRU research, around 43% of the migrants returned within 6-16 months of their migration to destination countries.

Besides, 29% returned within three to six months of migration, 13% within one to three months, and 15% returned within 30 days of migration.

Most of these returnees, 72% to be exact, received no payment in their destinations while the rest received payment partially.

Migrant workers face not only the sufferings abroad but also a multitude of challenges upon their return, including psychological distress (31%), physical and social difficulties (15.3%), and financial setbacks (73.8%).

At the event, lawmaker Shamim Haider Patwary said to ensure the fulfilment of commitments with all parties involved, it is necessary to create a legal framework for providing compensation in case of non-compliance by the workers.

Most of the returnees under the research went abroad in the post-Covid period to get jobs in construction, cleaning, domestic work, loading/unloading, and agriculture sectors.

Beyond job-related difficulties, the other reasons behind the return of workers were: arrest and deportation, employer's misconduct, no valid visa, low salary, physical sickness, and some voluntarily.

The major reasons behind the arrest and deportation of 16% of total respondents were that they had no valid work permit, ran away due to deprivation from promised jobs, and roamed in search of jobs.

Salim Reza, a member of the National Human Rights Commission and former secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare, said, "To obtain any job in the country, one must fulfil specific qualifications. However, in the case of going abroad, due to the absence of any qualification standards, anyone can go abroad, which poses a challenge to the quality of migration."

He mentioned, "Currently, there is a pre-departure orientation for migrants that lasts for three days, which is somewhat inadequate. Therefore, there is a need to establish mandatory long-term training arrangements.

Saleh Ahmed Mujaffor, director general of BMET, said at the event, "Awareness building is a big issue to prevent fraud in the migration process, and we are thinking of doing more by using social and traditional media."

"We have more than enough policies for safe and orderly migration. But the problem is implementation," he said. Emphasising on quality migration he said, "We have to focus on quality migration rather than sending a large number of workers."

Around 4.5 lakh Bangladeshi migrants have returned home during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Tasneem Siddiqui, RMMRU founding chair, presented the study findings.