20/04/2021
Migrant Workers Stuck Home: Drowning in debt | The Daily Star
in the host countries.
But after coming back to Bangladesh, they often face difficulties in finding employment
commensurate with their experience.
The IOM report painted a dismal picture of the increase in the household debt of the
returnee migrant workers and negative coping measures that migrant households
adopted including reducing expenditure on health and borrowing money to pay back
loans.
Sulaiman Mia is one such returnee.
When the 46-year-old from Noakhali's Senbagh was forced to return home from
Bahrain in March last year, his employer promised to rehire him once the situation
normalised.
A few months after his return, he repeatedly communicated with his employer in
Bahrain, but his employer refused every time to renew his work permit citing the
economic crisis.
Finding no other alternative, he borrowed around Tk 1.6 lakh from relatives, took a
bank loan of Tk 50,000 and another loan of Tk 30,000 from an NGO. He even sold off
gold ornaments belonging to his wife and mother to make ends meet.
"I have been unemployed since I came back. Now I am thinking of selling a piece of
land to repay the borrowed money. What else can I do, as I am overwhelmed with
debt," said a helpless Sulaiman.
He said although he spent nearly 20 years abroad, he could not save enough money
since his entire earnings was spent to meet daily family needs and building a new
house.
Masud Mollah's condition is similarly bleak.
Hailing from Narsingdi, the 32-year-old returned from Libya in February this year. He
said he had borrowed around Tk 80,000 from neighbours and another Tk 60,000 from
a local cooperative to pay his migration costs in 2019.
Although he repaid the Tk 80,000 loan, he is yet to repay five out of 11 instalments
against the Tk 60,000 loan, he said.
"It's an uncertain future ahead," Masud added.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
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