Around 4,000 women workers returned home from Saudi Arabia in last three years allegedly because of workplace exploitation, sources said.
Of them, 2,641 women came back home in 2017 while a good number waiting at safe homes and immigration camp in the Arab country.
The number of allegedly exploited women migrants would be 2.67 per cent of around 150,000 women went abroad for jobs during the three-year period.
Migrant rights activists, however, considered it alarming as they think a single worker should not be exploited at the job places. Complaints of abuse, torture, non-payment of wages and over work caused their repatriation, they said.
They were receiving calls from the victims almost every day to help return home from the countries they work -- especially from Saudi Arabia.
As per the statistics of safe home of Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh, some 1,953 women took shelter in 2017 and 1,691 of them already sent home.
Meanwhile, some 1,672 workers came at the safe home in Jeddah between 2015 and 2017. Of them, 1,648 returned home until 2017, according to data available with the Wage Earners Welfare Board (WEWB). Some 331 women were repatriated from the oil-rich country in January this year.
Dhaka and Riyadh signed a deal on hiring domestic helps from Bangladesh in 2015 with a minimum monthly wage of 800 Saudi Riyals (equivalent to Tk 16,600) each.
After singing the deal, more than 150,000 Bangladeshi women migrated to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with housemaid jobs, according to manpower bureau figures.
Sarwar Alam, labour counsellor at the labour wing of Bangladesh Mission in Riyadh, said that around 100 women were at present waiting at the safe homes and immigration camp for repatriation.
He said the workers escaped employers' house due to different reasons -- many of them wanted to come back home only due to home sickness. However, all the women were not being abused by the employers.
"We are working sincerely to address their problems. But sometimes we fail as many of the workers are residing far away from the mission," said the labour wing official, who is now in Dhaka.
The rights campaigners, however, said the rate of exploitation would be very high. They have been receiving complaints from the workers since the beginning of sending the workers there.
Kona (not her real name), a 23-year-old woman who returned home from Saudi Arabia Tuesday last, said she was abused sexually by the employer's son.
"After two months of my joining, the employer and his wife offered me to marry her second son only for the duration of my contact period," said Kona, mother of a child.
They insisted the woman in many ways. But she didn't agree with this proposal. So, she was being tortured ruthlessly.
"I couldn't sleep properly at night as the man would knock at the door. After that I escaped the employer's house and reported to the police station. But police took me again at the house," she said.
After a long struggle, she managed to go safe home and finally repatriated to Bangladesh.
Kona said that some 27 women returned home Tuesday last while more than 70 were still waiting at the immigration camp in Riyadh. She urged the government to help other workers staying at the safe homes and immigration camps to get back home.
Bangladeshi Ovhibashi Mohila Sramik Association (BOMSA) director Sumaiya Islam said the government should take a policy of zero tolerance about exploitation of Bangladeshi women migrant workers at their workplaces.
The government should convey massage to the Saudi authorities that 'if any worker is abused, Bangladesh will stop sending women there, she observed.
Citing an example, the rights activist said the Philippines took such measure when its women workers were being tortured by a section of the employers.
She said the labour receiving country was not properly following the deal, which was signed between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia in 2015. It is an urgent need to follow the Memorandum of Understanding immediately.
She, however, said some women were also in good position due to getting due benefits. Pre-departure training should be more comprehensive and useful for the women migrants' protection abroad.
When asked, Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, joint secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) said the number of returning women workers was not very high compared to that of their total outflow in last three years.
The government should make a database of returning women and identify the obstacles they faced at the workplaces, he said, adding that sometimes women feel home sickness while food and language difficulties become the vital reasons behind their returning home.
He recommended both the governments to hold joint technical committee meeting every three or six months to address the problems.
Around 700,000 million female workers went abroad between 1991 and 2017. Of them, more than 200,000 went to Saudi Arabia.
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