23/02/2021
'Back empty-handed': Bangladeshis cut off from jobs abroad face rising poverty | Remittances | The Guardian
Reaz Mahmud lost his job in the Middle East. Now, he says, he worries about having to sell his home to survive.
Photograph: Rafiqul Islam Montu
In Paschim Charbata, a village in the coastal Noakhali district, almost every home
had sent a man abroad over the past decade but most are now back. They sit at
home worrying about jobs, mounting debt and feeding their families.
“The coronavirus pandemic has stopped my life. My life trajectory was at its peak
but now it’s rapidly descending. The family was doing quite well. I could spend the
money on what my family needed. Now it is very difficult to meet the daily
expenses,” says Reaz Mahmud, 39.
He has accumulated a debt of 600,000 taka (£5,200) – double the amount he
borrowed when he first left Bangladesh in 2010 to work as an electrician in Qatar.
His job as a private driver in Oman ended when the pandemic led to travel
restrictions, trapping him in Bangladesh, where he had been taking a holiday for the
first time in two years.
Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, head of Bangladeshi NGO Coast, says the organisation
will make migrant workers a priority by supporting them to reintegrate into society,
or providing training so they can return to work abroad with better skills.
“There are hardships because they are running out of savings, they are not in good
condition and sometimes they are suffering trauma. If it continues it will create
social unrest, so we are ready to support them,” says Chowdhury.
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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