bdnews24.com :
Inward remittances have shattered one record after another in the outgoing year, but the coronavirus pandemic has revealed the real cost of the foreign currency – sufferings and struggle of the migrant workers.
Many of them reacted sharply to the government decision on mandatory quarantine when they began returning home in droves at the onset of the outbreak earlier this year after the coronavirus ground the world economy to a halt.
After staying home without any work for months, the returnees faced another hurdle – the limited availability of air tickets to return to their country of employment, culminating in days of protests. Many lost their jobs after failing to rejoin work in time.
In this situation, the death of Umme Kulsum, a teenager from Brahmanbaria who worked in Saudi Arabia as a domestic help, highlighted the perils for Bangladeshi women working abroad in unsafe conditions.
The money sent by more than 10 million Bangladeshi migrant workers, one of the driving forces of the country’s economy, accounts for nearly 12 percent of its GDP.
The record-breaking remittances have also taken the country’s foreign currency reserves to new heights.
On the other side of the success were the stories of the remitters’ shattered hopes.
One of them, 45-year-old Anwar Hossain of Gazipur’s Kaliakair who worked at a hotel in Malaysia, flew to Bangladesh to celebrate his daughter’s wedding before the coronavirus outbreak.
Caught off guard by the pandemic, he has now been left stranded without work for almost a year, while his attempts to return to Malaysia have to come to no avail as he spends his days reeling in a financial crisis and looks to the future with trepidation.
Anwar believes he could have made all the necessary arrangement and brought some money
with him had he thought of returning home for good. Now he has spent almost all the money he had on his daughter’s wedding.
He used to send back Tk 30,000-40,000, which was enough for his family. “I am in extreme financial hardship with no income at the moment. I can neither bear the agonising hunger, nor can I share the pain with someone else. Our future is now uncertain.”
According to the Expatriates’ Welfare Desk at the Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, as many as 326,758 Bangladeshi workers, including 39,274 women, flew back to the country between Apr 1 and Nov 30.
Job losses and shrinking income triggered the exodus of migrant workers at the beginning of the year, with the first batches arriving from Italy where the outbreak’s first wave took a devastating turn in February.
The government decided to keep the returnees from Italy, an early epicentre of the pandemic in Europe, under institutional quarantine at the Ashkona Hajj Camp near the airport and a centre in Gazipur.
Family members gathered outside Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka to receive their loved ones returning from abroad on Aug 24, 2020. Photo: Mahmud Zaman Ovi
When many of the migrants began demonstrating over the mismanagement in the quarantine facilities, they were subjected to a harsh rebuke from Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen.
As most of the countries cut off air connectivity with each other to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the government used special flights to bring back the workers who were stranded abroad after their losing jobs.
Upon returning, some were forced into isolation at home with their families by their neighbours while others faced fines for breaching quarantine rules.
The expatriates wanted to return to their countries of work when the curbs on air travel were being eased in July, but trouble arose over a shortage of plane tickets.
Only a few airlines conducted flight operations on a limited scale at the time, dashing countless migrant workers’ hopes of returning to work.
One of them, Mahbub Alam of Noakhali’s Sonaimuri, worked in Bahrain but was stuck at home amid the pandemic.
When he wanted to go back to the Gulf state in August, a travel agent demanded Tk 150,000 from him for an Air Arabia ticket, saying that high demand for a limited number of seats drove up the fare.
“But I couldn’t travel back as I couldn’t buy a ticket at such a high price,” he said. His visa has also expired.
Caught in a predicament, thousands of Bangladeshi migrant workers demonstrated for days in Dhaka for tickets. Their struggle eased when the government stepped in to increase the number of flights and the Middle-Eastern countries agreed to extend visas and appointments.
But a new crisis emerged when Italy closed its doors to Bangladeshis after some expatriates tested positive upon arrival in the European nation.
Some of the migrant workers were fortunate enough to get back to work abroad by overcoming all the hurdles, but they still face an uncertain future.
One of them, restaurant chef Gazi Kutubuddin, went back to Italy in October after spending seven months without work at home in Bangladesh. But what he found there was shocking – the owner decided to keep the restaurant, a business dependant on tourists, closed for quite a while after the pandemic hit the business hard.
Before the coronavirus crisis, Kutubuddin would send at least Tk 100,000 to his family back in Bangladesh every month. Left without work, he now survives with the support of the Italian government.
Things were much worse for migrant workers without any legal documents, according to Kutubuddin.
“Many people’s lives and livelihoods will be on the line if the situation continues.”
Roughly 50,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers used to travel overseas every month before COVID-19 struck, totalling about 600,000 people a year, according to data from organisations involved in migration.
Imran Ahmad, the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister, said in the beginning of the year that the government aimed to send at least 750,000 workers abroad in 2020.
Some of the returnees from Italy altercated with police as they protested against the government decision to quarantine them at Ashkona Hajj Camp near Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Saturday.
Finally, the number of Bangladeshis who could travel abroad for work stood at about 190,000. But only 8,000 were able to travel overseas between July and November as flights remained grounded in April and June.
The World Bank had forecast the downward trend in manpower export at the pandemic’s outset, predicting that Bangladesh’s inward remittances would drop by at least 25 percent year on year. But the projection proved to be well off the mark as migrant workers sent record amounts home after a dip in April.
Between July and November, Bangladesh received a record $10.9 billion in remittances with a 41.32 percent year-on-year increase. In July alone, migrant workers sent $2.6 billion, an all-time monthly high.
Inward remittances have shattered one record after another in the outgoing year, but the coronavirus pandemic has revealed the real cost of the foreign currency – sufferings and struggle of the migrant workers.
Many of them reacted sharply to the government decision on mandatory quarantine when they began returning home in droves at the onset of the outbreak earlier this year after the coronavirus ground the world economy to a halt.
After staying home without any work for months, the returnees faced another hurdle – the limited availability of air tickets to return to their country of employment, culminating in days of protests. Many lost their jobs after failing to rejoin work in time.
In this situation, the death of Umme Kulsum, a teenager from Brahmanbaria who worked in Saudi Arabia as a domestic help, highlighted the perils for Bangladeshi women working abroad in unsafe conditions.
The money sent by more than 10 million Bangladeshi migrant workers, one of the driving forces of the country’s economy, accounts for nearly 12 percent of its GDP.
The record-breaking remittances have also taken the country’s foreign currency reserves to new heights.
On the other side of the success were the stories of the remitters’ shattered hopes.
One of them, 45-year-old Anwar Hossain of Gazipur’s Kaliakair who worked at a hotel in Malaysia, flew to Bangladesh to celebrate his daughter’s wedding before the coronavirus outbreak.
Caught off guard by the pandemic, he has now been left stranded without work for almost a year, while his attempts to return to Malaysia have to come to no avail as he spends his days reeling in a financial crisis and looks to the future with trepidation.
Anwar believes he could have made all the necessary arrangement and brought some money
with him had he thought of returning home for good. Now he has spent almost all the money he had on his daughter’s wedding.
He used to send back Tk 30,000-40,000, which was enough for his family. “I am in extreme financial hardship with no income at the moment. I can neither bear the agonising hunger, nor can I share the pain with someone else. Our future is now uncertain.”
According to the Expatriates’ Welfare Desk at the Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, as many as 326,758 Bangladeshi workers, including 39,274 women, flew back to the country between Apr 1 and Nov 30.
Job losses and shrinking income triggered the exodus of migrant workers at the beginning of the year, with the first batches arriving from Italy where the outbreak’s first wave took a devastating turn in February.
The government decided to keep the returnees from Italy, an early epicentre of the pandemic in Europe, under institutional quarantine at the Ashkona Hajj Camp near the airport and a centre in Gazipur.
Family members gathered outside Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka to receive their loved ones returning from abroad on Aug 24, 2020. Photo: Mahmud Zaman Ovi
When many of the migrants began demonstrating over the mismanagement in the quarantine facilities, they were subjected to a harsh rebuke from Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen.
As most of the countries cut off air connectivity with each other to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the government used special flights to bring back the workers who were stranded abroad after their losing jobs.
Upon returning, some were forced into isolation at home with their families by their neighbours while others faced fines for breaching quarantine rules.
The expatriates wanted to return to their countries of work when the curbs on air travel were being eased in July, but trouble arose over a shortage of plane tickets.
Only a few airlines conducted flight operations on a limited scale at the time, dashing countless migrant workers’ hopes of returning to work.
One of them, Mahbub Alam of Noakhali’s Sonaimuri, worked in Bahrain but was stuck at home amid the pandemic.
When he wanted to go back to the Gulf state in August, a travel agent demanded Tk 150,000 from him for an Air Arabia ticket, saying that high demand for a limited number of seats drove up the fare.
“But I couldn’t travel back as I couldn’t buy a ticket at such a high price,” he said. His visa has also expired.
Caught in a predicament, thousands of Bangladeshi migrant workers demonstrated for days in Dhaka for tickets. Their struggle eased when the government stepped in to increase the number of flights and the Middle-Eastern countries agreed to extend visas and appointments.
But a new crisis emerged when Italy closed its doors to Bangladeshis after some expatriates tested positive upon arrival in the European nation.
Some of the migrant workers were fortunate enough to get back to work abroad by overcoming all the hurdles, but they still face an uncertain future.
One of them, restaurant chef Gazi Kutubuddin, went back to Italy in October after spending seven months without work at home in Bangladesh. But what he found there was shocking – the owner decided to keep the restaurant, a business dependant on tourists, closed for quite a while after the pandemic hit the business hard.
Before the coronavirus crisis, Kutubuddin would send at least Tk 100,000 to his family back in Bangladesh every month. Left without work, he now survives with the support of the Italian government.
Things were much worse for migrant workers without any legal documents, according to Kutubuddin.
“Many people’s lives and livelihoods will be on the line if the situation continues.”
Roughly 50,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers used to travel overseas every month before COVID-19 struck, totalling about 600,000 people a year, according to data from organisations involved in migration.
Imran Ahmad, the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister, said in the beginning of the year that the government aimed to send at least 750,000 workers abroad in 2020.
Some of the returnees from Italy altercated with police as they protested against the government decision to quarantine them at Ashkona Hajj Camp near Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Saturday.
Finally, the number of Bangladeshis who could travel abroad for work stood at about 190,000. But only 8,000 were able to travel overseas between July and November as flights remained grounded in April and June.
The World Bank had forecast the downward trend in manpower export at the pandemic’s outset, predicting that Bangladesh’s inward remittances would drop by at least 25 percent year on year. But the projection proved to be well off the mark as migrant workers sent record amounts home after a dip in April.
Between July and November, Bangladesh received a record $10.9 billion in remittances with a 41.32 percent year-on-year increase. In July alone, migrant workers sent $2.6 billion, an all-time monthly high.
