More than one lakh Bangladeshi workers have retuned home mostly from the gulf states in last five months after having lost their jobs amid the corona crisis.
According to the sources of the Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, about 1,27,000such workers were forced to return from 28 countries between April 1 to September 12 this year. The majorities of the returnees are from United Arab Emirates.
While most of the expatriates returning to Bangladesh have lost their jobs, many were also forced to return as their work permits had expired. Some have even returned after serving jail terms.
Most expatriate Bangladeshis have returned to the country from UAE totaling 36,533 people have returned from the UAE due to lack of jobs in various organizations. Among them 34 thousand 271 are males and 2 thousand 262 are females.
The second highest number of people who returned are from Saudi Arabia totaling about 30,000. Among them there are 26,204 males and 4,327 females. Many of the returnees were also imprisoned for various jail terms.
From Qatar 10,575 people have returned after losing their jobs. On the other hand, 9,361 people have returned to the country after losing their jobs in the Maldives.
Moreover, 8,609 people have returned to the country from Oman after being imprisoned for various terms. A total of 8,626 people has returned from Kuwait due to visa expiration. From Iraq, a total of 5,249 workers have returned home.
From Malaysia about 5,000 workers have returned while 3,881 people have returned from Turkey. From Lebanon, 3,113 people have returned while 2,086 people have returned from Singapore as their work period has ended and 746 people have returned from Bahrain.
Meanwhile,81 people have returned from South Africa due to lack of work. As many as 100 people have returned from South Korea since the agreement expired. 20 people have returned from Thailand due to lack of work. 39 people have returned from Myanmar. 1,718 people returned from Jordan. As many as 121 people have returned from Vietnam and 80 have returned from Sri Lanka due to expiration of their work abroad.
A total of 151 people were sent back from Italy on suspicion of coronavirus. On July 6, they were sent back to Bangladesh from Italy. After returning to the country, everyone was kept in quarantine under the supervision of the army.
In addition, 151 workers returned from Libya, 55 from Nepal, 208 from Sri Lanka, 32 from Thailand, 16 from Hong Kong, 8 from Japan, 100 from Russia, 36 from Mauritius and 40 from Cambodia.
However, the government is giving business opportunities to the workers after they lost their jobs abroad and returned home. The government has allocated Tk 200 crore for this.
The expatriate workers are getting loan assistance of Tk 5 to 7 lakh through Probashi Kallyan Bank. If an expatriate dies abroad due to coronavirus, his family gets 3 lakh taka from the government.
“Despite the return of more than 127,000 workers from around the world in the last five months due to the coronavirus, the number is not alarming,” said Imran Ahmad Minister of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment.
In a statement to the parliament on September 9, the Minister said, “A small number of our workers have returned from different countries due to the coronavirus economic crisis. It was feared that the economic downturn and the coronavirus would disrupt the labor markets of the major employers. But hopefully, the number of workers returning so far has not been alarming. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment have been playing a momentous role in this.”