20/04/2021
Migrant Workers Stuck Home: Drowning in debt | The Daily Star
His monthly income in Saudi Arabia had been around Tk 50,000, but he had to send
home the lion's share of his earnings as his seven-member family depended on his
remittance.
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With his meagre savings already exhausted on family expenses, the 42-year-old from
Noakhali took a bank loan of Tk 1 lakh and invested the money to set up a small shoe
factory in his area. The factory, however, did not do well, forcing him to shut it down.
Nazim also had to borrow around Tk 3 lakh, in phases, from relatives as he hasn't been
able to find a job yet. Now, he is worried sick about how to come out of the debt trap.
"I don't know what I should do now," he said.
Like Nazim, many returnees are facing a debt cycle after they borrowed money in the
face of economic hardship created by the pandemic. With little or no income, these
returnees are in despair, struggling to repay their debts and manage household
expenses.
Around 3.76 lakh migrant workers returned home between April 1 and December 17
last year amid the pandemic, according to government data.
International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in its recent survey report, showed the
debt burden on the migrant workers and the challenges of reintegration.
The report, titled "Rapid Assessment Round 2: Needs and Vulnerabilities of Internal
and International Return Migrants in Bangladesh", found that around 69 percent of 875
returnee migrants from abroad and their households are in debt.
Some 28 percent returnees from abroad have debt higher than Tk 2 lakh and over 50
percent have debt higher than Tk 1 lakh, it said.
The survey on returnees was conducted in 12 high return-migration districts in August
and September last year.
The report found 64 percent of the returnees from abroad unemployed.
'OVERWHELMED WITH DEBT'
Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world early last year, many Bangladeshi workers
returned home in large numbers, either after job losses or seeing no job opportunities
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