23/02/2021
'Back empty-handed': Bangladeshis cut off from jobs abroad face rising poverty | Remittances | The Guardian
poverty. The World Food Programme has estimated that, globally, the drop in
migrant workers’ remittances could put an additional 33 million people at risk of
hunger.
When the government reported to the UN on its progress against the sustainable
development goals in June, it said that the poverty rate had halved from 40% in
2005 to 20.5% in 2019, but that the pandemic risked halting the main strategies of
promoting work abroad and increasing employment opportunities for the poorest.
By June 2020, the poverty rate had risen back to 29.5%.
A survey by Bangladeshi research company Innovision said on average low-income
families had enough to support themselves for eight days without extra income,
while most households had grain stores that would last 11 days.
People are coming
back empty handed
who have lost their
jobs. They don't
know what will
happen in future
Shariful Islam, Brac
Brac, Bangladesh’s largest NGO, created a database of
35,000 returnees to support them with cash grants and
counselling. Shariful Islam, head of Brac’s migration
programme, says there have been more than 400,000
returnees since early 2020 and most had no support.
“People are coming back empty-handed who have lost
their jobs. These people don’t know what will happen in
the future.”
Given how many people are supported by each migrant worker, he says, up to a
third of the population could be affected by the job losses, and there are still many
unemployed people stranded abroad.
A survey in June by the UN’s migration agency (IOM) revealed that most of the
returnees were now unemployed and half had no income at all.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/04/back-empty-handed-bangladeshis-cut-off-from-jobs-abroad-face-rising-poverty
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