26/01/2021
Overworked, unpaid and abused, Bangladeshi women return from Middle East | Prothom Alo
The returnees said that they endured physical and mental torture, faced shortage of
food and were often sexually abused by the employers or the family members.
At least 17,182 women migrant workers have come back to Bangladesh between 1 April
and 3 October, according to the Wage Earners Welfare Board (WEWB) under the
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, Bangladesh.
Of them, 6,025 have come back home from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 3,269 from
the United Arab Emirates, 1,887 from Lebanon, 1,789 from Jordan, 1,362 from Qatar
and 1,241 from Oman.
COVID-19 has severely impacted millions of migrant workers in destination countries,
many of whom have experienced job loss or non-payment of wages, been forced by
employers to take unpaid leave or accept reduced wages, been con ned in poor living
conditions, and with little or no work options left, according to global migration
experts.
Firoza Begum, 37, a migrant from Munshiganj in Bangladesh, was sent back to
Bangladesh jobless from the KSA in July. Her ‘out-pass’ was issued by Bangladesh
Embassy in Riyadh.
Firoza claimed that her employer did not pay her for the last ve months. The unpaid
dues amount to Saudi Riyal 5,000 (USD 1,300).
“Although I did the household work and met every demand of theirs, they did not pay
my wages,” she said. Instead, she said that she was often sco ed and tortured by the
three daughters of the employer.
She had migrated to the KSA in July 2019 paying BDT 30,000 (USD 350 ). When she
arrived at Riyadh airport, a Saudi recruitment o
ce sta
received her and sent her to
the employer’s home where she worked for only two months. The working conditions
were not what she had expected.
She was sent back to the recruiter’s o
ce who found her work at a new employer’s
home. Firoza worked there for six months and everything seemed well even though
she was paid only for the rst month. Torture started as soon as she started asking for
her wages. Finally, she ran away from her employer’s home without her passport.
Firoza Begum was immediately detained by the Saudi police and put in jail for. Then
COVID-19 started and Bangladesh embassy was able to issue ‘out passes’ for stranded
workers.
Another woman migrant worker, Hashi, 28, returned to Bangladesh from the KSA
empty-handed on the night of Eid-ul-Adha, one of the important religious festivals
for the Muslim community, on 31 July this year.
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