35% of migrants return home post-Covid failing to get jobs abroad: RMMRU study

The Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU) has recently conducted a study that revealed that 15.1% of migrants returned home prematurely as they could not secure any jobs, while 20.1% faced the disappointment of not getting promised jobs and salaries.

RMMRU founding chair Tasneem Siddiqui presented the study findings during an event titled "Policy Discussion on Untimely Return" held at a city hotel.

The RMMRU study has been conducted among 218 untimely returnee migrants, primarily from Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Jordan, and Malaysia, who were interviewed between October and November this year.

The study was published at a time when Bangladesh sent one million workers abroad for two consecutive years until October 2023.

Recently, Oman has suspended issuing all types of new visas to Bangladeshi citizens due to, according to sector insiders, an oversupply of workers from the South Asian nation.

Bangladeshi migrants and recruiters told The Business Standard that hundreds of workers have lost their jobs in the past six months in Oman, and many have been defrauded by middlemen and have not received their promised jobs.

Now, the allegations of those workers have been supported by the new study of RMMRU that has widely shown the bleak picture of labour migration.

Their research indicates that 43% of surveyed migrants returned within 6–16 months of their migration to destination countries.

Besides, 29% return within three to six months of migration, 13% within one to three months of migration, and 15% return within 30 days of migration.

The RMMRU research also highlights that beyond job-related challenges, multiple factors drove these returns, including arrest, deportation, employer misconduct, visa issues, low wages, health problems, and voluntary decisions.

Of the total respondents, 16% faced arrest and deportation due to lacking valid work permits, fleeing due to unmet job promises, or searching for employment opportunities.

Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) Director General Saleh Ahmed Mujaffor said at the event, "Awareness building is a big issue to prevent fraud in the migration process, and we are thinking of doing more by using social and traditional media."

"We have more than enough policies for safe and orderly migration. But the problem is implementation, he said, adding that "we have to focus on quality migration rather than sending a large number."

Around 4.5 lakh Bangladeshi migrants have returned home during the Covid-19 pandemic.