Expatriate workers and misery-Ambassador Muhammad Zamir

Date: November 14, 2021

Like many other developing countries, Bangladesh is dependent on the remittance inflow that we receive from our expatriate workers. This helps us not only to meet our balance of trade deficit but also to add to our foreign exchange reserve.

At this point of time we have nearly nine million persons of Bangladeshi origin working as expatriate workers in several countries in the Far East, in South East Asia and in the Middle East. There are also nearly half a million persons of Bangladeshi origin who have acquired foreign nationalities of European, Australian, British, US and Canadian origin and settled down in these areas. They also continue to support their relatives in Bangladesh by remitting financial support for their family members.
Such a scenario is similar also for India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Nepal.
It has recently been reported that the inflow of wage earners remittance to Bangladesh had increased in the first four months of the cur-rent fiscal year (July-October).
Many economists heaved a sigh of relief but this happiness was not reflected by some sociologists who drew attention to the other factor within the migrant matrix-the miserable conditions and social challenges that expatriate workers have to withstand and overcome within their work-paradigm, individually and collectively.
In this regard reference was made to a recent report published by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) detailing the impact of migration on household income, expenditure and poverty. Some interesting elements have emerged from this survey- (a) remittance from male migrants has decreased by 11 per cent. It has seen an increase from female migrants; (b) it takes male migrants at least 39 months to recover the money invested to go abroad. For a female migrant, it takes less than a year to earn the money back; and (c) Bangladeshis who travel to the Gulf and the South East Asian countries leave behind a trail of loans undertaken to enable them to meet the large, upfront costs associated with finding jobs as expatriate workers. This is affecting family members they leave behind in Bangladesh.
The media has also reported in the recent past about women who travelled abroad to work and then found themselves as victims of sexual exploitation and also inhuman treatment not consistent with international legal regulations. On return they have also narrated how they were also fooled by many Bangladeshi manpower agents who had arranged for them to go to foreign countries. It has been taking this seriously and has taken steps to reduce corruption within this sector and bring forth greater accountability. This lack of consistency with international regulatory expectations has also been noted in the context of treatment of migrant expatriate workers from India. According to data tabled in the Indian Parliament in April 2018, (10th attachment) there are 8.77 million Indians in six Gulf countries- namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

It would be interesting to note here that Indian Workers in the UAE remitted during 2012-2017 more remittances than Indians in the USA – US$ 68.37 Billion or from the UK-US$ 23 Billion or from Canada- US$ 17.3 Billion. Incidentally, it has also been revealed that during this period remittances from Bangladesh to India stood at US$ 4.7 Billion.

However, the human cost of such earnings by Indian citizens has been immense in the Middle East compared to Bangladesh.
Recent Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) based in New Delhi and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian workers died in Gulf countries. It works out that on an average, more than 10 deaths per day has taken place with regard to Indian workers in this region. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf countries. The CHRI on the basis of available information has also pointed out that 10,416 deaths occurred in Saudi Arabia during the period while Bahrain accounted for the least number-1,317 deaths. The most deaths occurred in 2015 — 4,702, whereas the smallest number was reported in 2012- 2,375. By July-August 2018, 1,656 deaths had occurred.
These statistics however do not really clarify the cause of deaths- whether it was due to natural causes and illness or workplace oriented.
The CHRI has noted that their efforts in this regard have not been an attempt “to label the remittances from the Gulf as blood money. Instead the purpose of this comparative analysis is to highlight the shockingly large number of deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf countries”. CHRI has also mentioned that “the Central Government” needs to make more information about deaths of Indian Workers in these countries public and ascertain the cause of deaths especially the large number of deaths labeled as “natural deaths”.

In any case, one feels that there should be a common South Asian effort to examine the conditions in which our diaspora from South Asia work abroad. The vast majority of them are involved in the construction sector and also in the infrastructure network. They are mostly unskilled and semi-skilled and have to work under difficult circumstances. Their health, security, work conditions and labor standards need to be carefully monitored. We need to examine the conditions under which migrant workers work abroad and identify measures that will prevent avoidable deaths.

The canvas associated with migrant workers is wide and diverse. We have to remember that they are a valuable section of our community and need to be helped whenever they face any challenge. Our diplomatic Missions abroad in these relevant countries probably need to be more proactive. That will make a major difference. Our migrant expatriate workers should not feel that they have no one to listen to their grievances.

Date: November 14, 2021
Source: https://ourtimebd.com/epaper/?date=2021-11-14
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