Bangladesh has been exporting labours for almost five decades. Remittance occupies the lion’s share of the country’s economy. However, the authorities are yet to devise any effective or fruitful master plan in a bid to develop the lifestyle of the expatriates and quell fraudulence.
According to the expatriate welfare desk installed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, as many as 97 thousand 9 hundred 20 Bangladeshi migrant workers returned home on out-pass in 2022. Out of them, most returnees are from Saudi Arabia.
The expats who either lost their passports or expired their tenure and took shelter in Bangladeshi embassy at the respective countries are sent back home using out-pass.
Refereeing to the return on 100 thousand migrant workers in just a year an official of the expatriate welfare desk said, ““If any expatriate loses passport, expires work permit validity, becomes illegal, falls sick or flees the employer’s home they are sheltered in the embassy’s safe home and then sent back home. As they don’t have any passport, most of them return through out-pass while a big number of overseas workers face deception.”
More than one hundred female workers returned home last year following rigorous torture on them, a study of non-governmental development organization Brac. Among the returnees, some were victimized by sexual assault and returned home with an unauthorized baby; some died of torture and were sent home without any autopsy while claiming the death as suicide. However, no enduring compensation was given to them or no reintegration programme was taken, the study suggests.
Any fruitful measure is yet to be seen to address the rehabilitation and protection of the returned workers. Information of various embassies including that of the KSA shows more than six hundred migrant workers return home every year on an average after they had faced rigorous torture. But, the government has not yet installed any camp to shelter or protect the workers who returned home facing torture.
Brac says, some 100 thousand women workers fly every year on an average. Of them 5 percent return home following extreme vulnerability.
Beauty Akhter, an overseas worker from Manikganj, returned home following a mental disorder in 2016. She was rescued from the airport and handed over to her family with the help of law enforcement agencies. Her family took her to home after an initial treatment of months at the National Mental Health Institute in the capital.
Beauty Akhter has been kept chained for seven years. This reporter found Beauty Akhter at a remote village in Singair of Manigkang. Her hands and legs are chained. She scolded the reporter as she always does seeing any unknown people. Sometimes she comes outrageously, throws away whatever there on her hands.
“She scolds people round always. None is interested to visit our home, not even anyone comes. My son lives in Dhaka. They also fear of her whether she beats me or not. But, I can’t leave her as I am the mother,” Rabeya Khatun, Beauty’s mother, said.
So, Rabeya’s family consists of two members—she and Beauty. Beauty’s husband left her. She has only a son who resides in another place. She decided to go abroad in a bid to earn more money to raise her one-off child. She got the visa through a local broker and went KSA but returned disordered.
When Beauty Akhter returned in 2016, she was compensated with Taka 100 thousand. But, later none got informed about her whereabouts. Expressing anger over this, Rabeya Khatun said, “Many reports were published when she (Beauty) returned from Saudi. The government compensated her with Taka 100 thousand. Later, none kept the update resulting Beauty in a chained life.”
Though the authorities provided her with a lump sum amount, the victims required an enduring treatment. Sometimes, the NGOs or development organisaiton come forward with financial assistance if the news is published on media. But, that is not adequate. As a result, the returnee has to go back home empty-handed and none remains to welcome them. The airport authority, police or even the expatriate welfare desk usually hand over the victims to NGOs as there is no structural system in the country to this connection.
The authorities so far set up no specific safe home or shelter camp to rehabilitate the victims for long period. However, the government last year opened ‘Bangabandhu Wage Earners Center adjacent to the Dhaka airport for as a temporary residence for outgoing and returning workers. The shelter centre accommodates 48 people while a single boarder can stay a maximum of two days paying Taka 200 for 24 hours.
Another NGO that deals with the shelter searvice is Ovibashi Karmi Unnyan Programme (OKUP). OKUP has a two-room safe home beside its headquarter at Dania in Jatrabari. Like other shelter camps there is no opportunity to stay in the camp for long time. The victims can stay few days before their family accepts them. Having started since 2013, OKUP features six beds for women and several other beds for the male. As many as 323 people have been served the shelter from January 2022 to January 2023. Amogn them 236 are women workers.
However, there are several non-governmental initiatives to shelter the victims. Of them, Brac owns a 250-bed safe home near Ashkona Hajj camp to shelter the migrant workers. The returnees are offered shelter here on emergency basis. The victims are handed over to family after a short-term shelter spanning 3-4 days considering the situation. The Brac shelter camp also features food, physiological counseling and first aid.
Bangladesh Naree Sramik Kendra (BNSK) has a small room at Shyamoli in the capital Dhaka that can provide shelter to 3-4 people on emergency. The non-governmental organization has facilitated 5 people so far since 2021.
Another NGO that deals with the shelter service is Ovibashi Karmi Unnyan Programme (OKUP). OKUP has a two-room safe home beside its headquarter at Dania in Jatrabari. Like other shelter camps there is no opportunity to stay in the camp for long time. The victims can stay few days before their family accepts them. Having started since 2013, OKUP features six beds for women and several other beds for the male. As many as 323 people have been served the shelter from January 2022 to January 2023. Among them 236 are women workers.
Another organization Refugee and Migratory Movement research Unit (RAMMRU) has a makeshift safe home at Dakkhin Khan area in the capital. Starting from 2018 RAMMRU so far sheltered about 27 thousand migrant workers. An individual worker can stay 6-8 days before s/he is handed over to family. The safe home is capable of sheltering 8-10 people at a time.
Bangladesh Ovibashi Mohila Sramik Association (BOMSA) houses another safe home to shelter 6-7 people. BOMSA has been providing the services of food, medical support and mental counseling to more than 15 thousand workers since 2009.
However, none of the non-governmental development agencies have protection support such as providing large or medium financial assistance to migrant workers or providing long-term shelter and employment. Their prime goal is to reaching out to the family.
In other words, none of the non-governmental development organizations have safe homes where long-term affected workers can take shelter. All that exists is temporary shelter.
Officially, there is a rehabilitation center for orphaned children under the Department of Social Welfare, but there is no long-term safe home or rehabilitation center in the country for abused women. Among the information that has been found out, the private development organization BRAC has a safe home or shelter next to the Dhaka International Airport, where helpless workers returning from abroad are sheltered from time to time. But it is on temporary basis. Basically the victims are kept there as primary shelter till handover to family. According to the BRAC immigration programme, some 26 thousand people have been provided with necessary support in various ways in the last 4 years. Of them, at least 2,000 women, including at least 100 women who were found to be mentally disordered returned with babies after sexual abuse, BRAC said.
“In case of any critical case returning to the airport with a child, or if they return mentally unstable, if the expatriate welfare desk, airport police, immigration give any information, we try to fund their food, counseling, accommodation, medical by BRAC. We give them treatment. Usually they need multiple types of support. The victims need quick response between 24 to 72 hours after their arrival at the shelter camps. We named that response after ‘emergency support,’ BRAC Migration Programme Chief Coordinator Shariful Hasan said –
“No one in the country has the kind of protection structure or the kind of safe home that is needed to take care of a victim who returns home after sexual abuse along with a baby. What we have is the arrangement of accommodation and medical facilities if any man or woman returns. But that service is not permanent. Our service is available for 3-4 days. It’s not possible to shelter the migrant workers for months after months or years after years,” added he.
BNSK executive director Sumaiya Islam says, the organization so far sheltered 5 outbound workers, of them, one was critically ill.
Mentioning the need for an overall framework Sumaiya said, “The working capacity of the Bangabandhu Wage Earners Welfare Centre needs to be boosted up to fulfill government’s target. It is important to have two sectors, one for short term support and the other for long term. The government has to build an overall outline for it. It is important to take more effective initiatives to implement these plans.”
Executive director of the non-governmental organization Karmojibi Nari and POC member of APWLD Sanjida Sultana says, “
“It is the responsibility of the Expatriate Welfare Ministry to build a safe home or safe center adjacent to the airport. When flights arrive from Middle Eastern countries, keep an eye out to see if anyone is returning from such abuse. It means to create a singular unit of repatriation system. The government has to shelter them and handover to their respective families along with financial assistance. Non-governmental organizations can provide a partial support but the mandate relies on the government. Non-governmental organizations do not have their own funds, they deal with individual projects.. It also has many limitations. Migration of migrant workers is an ongoing process, which has been going on for a long time. As a result, there should be a comprehensive system that must be done by the government.
“I used to become crazy as I was beaten up on my head. I could not do any work,” Saudi returnee Nasima Akhter (pseudonym) was saying.
Nasima Akhtar returned to the country on May 1, 2022 when she became mentally disordered. She went to Saudi Arabia in 2021 as a domestic worker and came back after 1 year. She could have sent some money but her employer held her salary for few months. This reporter talked to Nasima Akhtar at her house is in Singair, Manikganj where she lives with her family. Having left 2 children, she went abroad to return solvency to the family, her husband Mujibur Rahman is now unable to afford her medical treatment.
Nasima Akhtar said she had to do a lot of work both in an out of home like cleaning the house, washing dishes, clothes.
“My salary was very low. How I would work if the salary is too low. They should have told me that they would not raise my salary. They beat me. If I did not work or fell sick my housemaster wouldn't let me have my meal. He used to beat me with a stick, every day he used to beat me. Even if I was sick, he would ask me to work, if I didn't, he would beat me,” Nasima AKhter said.
“I informed the recruiting agency office that my master beats me. But the agency said, so what? Stay there,” Nasima went saying.
Nasima went abroad through Shan Overseas Recruiting Agency. She did not get 3-month salary when she was sick. Later, her family brought her back.
Most of the horrible stories are alike, but still the incidents are not given much importance. As a result, similar incidents are happening year after year. Even no one has any information or interest about how many workers like Nasima return home every year after being tortured in such situations.
"The government does not even have the data or information about the exact amount of workers who are returning after being abused. The government just wants to avoid the fact that they aren’t involved in the process. However, they are Bangladeshi nationals and are also sending a lot of remittances,” Sanjida Sultana says.
Every year an average of one million workers go abroad for work, out of which more than 100 thousand are women. The largest number of female domestic workers from Bangladesh goes to Saudi Arabia--70-90 thousand every year--among the Middle East countries. However, there is no accurate estimate of how many workers return as victims of torture every year, and there is neither research on the problems faced by women workers in normal migration and nor their solutions.
According to the data from Bangladesh Consulate General Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2021, 12 thousand 860 people were given legal assistance in deportation center. Besides, 106 domestic workers under the safe home management have been sent back to the country.
In the last one year, 50 repatriated workers have filed written application with BMET for compensation, out of which 25 were nodded, according Brac.
Immigration experts say most migrant workers who were deceived abroad do not know where to apply, what steps to take. As per OKAP, some 323 expatriate workers who returned from abroad took primary shelter in their safe homes in the last 3 years, of which 252 were in very poor physical condition.
On the other hand, BMET data shows, the license of 258 recruiting agencies has been suspended and 51 agencies have been ousted. Most of the suspended agencies are accused of various crimes including human trafficking. According to court and police sources, more than 5 thousand cases related to human trafficking have been remaining pending. However, in the case of torture, there is no example of judicial settlement of any case in the country so far. In most cases, the accused get out on bail and the lack of prosecution does not reduce such fraudulence and persecution. Even though the death penalty was awarded abroad in the case of Abiron murder trial Saudi Arabia, the case is still under trial in Bangladesh and the accused are free on bail. As a result brokers continue their unscrupulous trade heedlessly due to lack of justice.
As many as 2 female workers returned home after being positive for HIV virus in 2020. They were taken from the airport to the office with the help of BOMSA. They sent remittances for the family for 10 years. When the family was contacted they refused to accept them for fear of social taboo.
BOMSA general secretary, development activist Sheikh Rumana took the initiative to return those two women workers back to their families.
“BOMSA has been helping the victims’ family for a long time. In many cases the families turn their backs. If there is any government-coordinated initiative or rehabilitation or shelter center, they could take shelter. Since there is no such system, we reach out to the families by convincing them. Although the victims face insult there,” Sheikh Rumana says.
She further suggested introducing pension allowance for those who return home after working abroad for 10-15 years. Since 2009, BOMSA has provided treatment to 1,000 women workers whose physical condition was extremely poor. Many of them have returned from prison with various diseases, they have also returned with the risk of death due to sexual abuse. But no one has any accurate estimate.
However, the Bangladesh Women Lawyers Association has a safe home in Gazipur near Dhaka, where some expatriate women workers who have returned from abroad are provided shelter. However, women victims are kept depending on the situation.
Children become homeless along with their mothers
Case study-1: Husband of Hajera Begum of Narsingdi left her with 3 children. She spent last year in Saudi Arabia working as a domestic worker to raise her kids. After only 14 days, Hajera Begum died at the house of the employer. The family claims she was killed, but the law enforcement labeled the incident as suicide and sent the body home without any autopsy. No guardian remained for the three children after Hajera Begum's demise. Later, they were relocated to an orphanage with the help of a non-governmental development agency.
Case Study-2: 18-year-old unmarried Moyna (pseudonym) of Sunamganj returned home with a child after 4 years. She lost her mental stability and returned home from Jeddah on December 30, 2022 with her 6-month-old baby. Recruiting agency M/s B. S. International sends domestic workers to Saudi Arabia without obtaining any clearance from the Bureau of Manpower Export (BMET). After going to Saudi Arabia, she lost all contact with her family. Not being able to contact the agency and the broker, the family also stopped communicating, thinking that Moyna had died. After 4 years when she returned home with her child. Seeing her wandering around in a state of mental disorder, the airport police handed her over to the Brac, and she was sheltered in a safe home and later handed over to family.
When the family does not accept these women they have to go through extreme disaster. BOMSA says, it has served 35 migrant women workers who returned home with children after being sexually abused since 2009. Among them, a total of 11 expecting mothers were brought back to the country in 2021. At least one child among them is still growing up in SOS Shishu Palli in Khulna. The rest were handed over to the families. The grass-roots level organization deals with the workers in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Dubai and Lebanon. However, among these countries, women workers face more sexual violence in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, the organization said.
Incidents that are seriously taken by NGOs or development organizations or discussed in the media are usually dealt with at an accelerated pace through government management. But in most cases, non-governmental development organizations give more importance to handing over the victims to the family. As there is no separate coordinated programme for these workers and children returning abroad, the victimized mothers and their children have to spend their days in tremendous abandon and poverty.
However, according to immigration experts, there is no provision for mothers to stay in child centers under the Ministry of Social Welfare like Chhotamoni Nibas at Azimpur in the capital. As a result, vulnerable mothers express their reluctance to keep their children separated in these centers even in the midst of extreme poverty and uncertainty.
According to the Wage Earners Welfare Board Act 2018, section 9(a) provisions for the operation of safe homes at home and abroad for the welfare of abused women migrants. It is also said to adopt and implement projects for the social and economic rehabilitation of women workers who have returned to the country. But till now there is no safe home for migrant women in the country.
Sections 8 and 9 of the Wage Earners Welfare Board Act 2018 refer to rehabilitation-
However, the Bangabandhu Wage Earners Center which has recently been built near the airport as a temporary stay or overnight accommodation for workers going abroad and returning abroad has the opportunity to stay for a maximum of 2 days. Plans have been taken to build a safe home and training center for the migrants but it has not yet been implemented.
When asked if there is any plan for those who have been deceived or abused, Imran Ahmed, Minister of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment, said - "Bangabandhu Wage Earners Center is not actually a safe home. Its main objective is to facilitate a temporary hub where expatriates can take shelter on their way to or from abroad. We will facilitate with some training schemes there like PDO, demo which we do at TTC.”
“There is a separate plan for women victims of violence, but it is a long-term plan. It has to be done under the re-integration program, which we have not been able to do yet. The Ministry of Social Welfare is involved in this, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs also has a role to play. But there is still no coordinated effort between the two departments. We are discussing to do something about it in a synchronized way,” Imran Ahmed furthered.
According to the ministry sources, the government have a new rehabilitation project powered the World Bank, but it has not yet reached the execution stage. Under this project, there is a plan to provide training to 25,000 workers who returned abroad during the pandemic and a financial assistance of up to Taka 13,000 once.
The Bangabandhu Wage Earners Welfare Center has not taken any government-coordinated initiatives so far in terms of institutional capacity building, rehabilitation of migrant workers or social protection and safety. Although the non-governmental development organizations have done some work on migrant workers in isolation, it has been very inadequate. In case of mentally unstable migrant workers, they are handed over to their families only after initial treatment at the hospital. As a result, families cannot afford durable medical care or social safety due to poverty.
"If the activities or scope of the Bangabandhu Web Earners Center, which has been done by the government to accommodate expatriates, increases, and this government body, can also become a long-term shelter center for women," Shoriful Hasan said.
But in general, many activities need to be undertaken according to the type of torture that expatriate women are subjected to. What kind of support is needed if someone returns in a very emergency situation, what kind of support is needed if someone comes back with a child, what kind of support is needed if someone is abused or pregnant, what kind of support is needed if they lose their mental balance, a holistic structure needs to be formed where doctors, psychologists, lawyers will have a holistic system. And that initiative should be taken by the government, Shoriful opined.
He further said that the Bangabandhu Wage Earners Welfare Center can be shaped into an institutional structure.
According to the law, every expatriate worker pays 3 thousand rupees to the welfare fund set by the government for the interests of the migrants. Accordingly, about one million workers who go abroad every year pay more than Taka 2 lakh 40 thousand crore annually.
Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, the former Secretary General of Baira, an organization of recruiting agencies, said that the fee paid by the Wage Earners Welfare Board for the welfare of expatriates should be spent on their welfare. Expenditure should be spent on the welfare of those who return abroad after fraudulence.
Where that money goes, he asked.
Shamim thinks, there is no shortage of money, only lack of initiative. The Wage Earners Welfare Board of the Expatriate Welfare Ministry has various programmes including working to improve the quality of life of expatriates, bringing the dead bodies back home when they die abroad, education of children. Apart from this, immigration experts say that this fund should also be spent on the rehabilitation of affected migrant workers.
Among the missions abroad, Bangladesh has only 5 Safe homes in 3 countries - one in Jeddah and two in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, one in Lebanon and one in Oman. Workers returning from abroad say it is necessary to increase the facilities of these safe homes. In many cases, when workers are mistreated in any country, the embassies help to handle the cases abroad, as long-term stay in these safe homes becomes necessary for the affected workers. As a result, considering the importance of having a safe home in all missions, immigration experts feel that it is important.
As of 2021, Bangladesh Consulate General Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has sent 17 crore 76 lakhs of surplus money back to the welfare board in one year. In 2022, about Taka one crore was sent back in just one month. And it is still ongoing. According to immigration experts, these funds should be spent on resettlement of expatriates through concentrated initiatives and plans.
In this regard, the RAMRU Director Marina Sultana said that a comprehensive structure is very necessary to address where the exploited workers will actually go, who will issue them passport, what they will do. Rather than doing this scattered, we need a holistic framework led by the government, while the rest of us work together to the best of our abilities.
