Business Desk :
Bangladeshi migrants working in the Gulf States were the victim of wage theft, revealed a RMMRU study on Wednesday.
On average, the Gulf returnees claimed that they lost $2,119 (Tk 179,989) as wages and other entitlements.
The average figure for male returnees stood at $2287 (Tk 194,308) and that of female workers at $1,144 (Tk 97,169). The $35 (Tk 3000) was the lowest and $7063 (Tk 600,000) was the highest amount of loss cited.
The findings were shared at a virtual consultation, jointly organised by Bangladesh Civil Society of Migrants (BCSM) and Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU).
It showed that the migrants who were in the countries of destination for more than five years reported higher amounts of losses. About 31 per cent of the respondents who were employed from pre-2015 on average lost $2,810 (Tk 238,727).
Nearly 65 per cent workers who arrived in destination countries from 2015-2020 suffered average loss of $1,795 (Tk 152,490) each.
The loss of those arriving recently (after 2020) was also high. The four per cent of respondents belonging to this category on average lost $1,874 (Tk 1,59,204).
The workers, who lost wages are from the UAE topped the list $2853, followed by Kuwait $2513, Qatar $2075, Saudi Arabia $1985, Oman $1668 and Bahrain $1363, it said.
The study on ‘Addressing Systemic Challenges of Wage Theft: Bangladesh COVID-19 Returnees from the Gulf States’ interviewed 1,160 returnee migrants from 45 districts during the March 25 and May 06 period this year.
DR C R Abrar presented the key findings and noted that these migrants on average lost Tk 179,989 as wages and other entitlements.
Despite having due visa and work-permits as many as 63 per cent were forced to return by the employers as their arbitrarily terminated and visas cancelled, he said.
The state-sponsored repatriation process did not ensure that workers could lodge claims to their unpaid entitlements in the future, he added.
