A significant number of returnee female migrant workers, especially those from the Middle-East (ME) countries, became victims of wage theft, as they failed to bring home their dues from employers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides, many of them were forced to return home because of increased workload and exploitation following impact of the pandemic, workers and rights activists said.
Data released by the expatriates' welfare desk at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital shows a total of 18,763 female workers returned home from 18 countries between April 01 and October 07 this year.
The majority of 6,645 women workers returned from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), while 3,533 from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 2,155 from Lebanon, 1,789 from Jordan, 1,601 from Qatar, 1,290 from Oman, 573 from Turkey, 389 from Malaysia, 312 from Mauritius, 219 from Kuwait, 77 from the Maldives, 60 from Iraq, 29 from Singapore, 48 from Bahrain, 15 from Nepal, 13 from the UK, 11 from Thailand, and four women workers from Hong Kong.
The welfare desk officials said the arrival of female workers has been continuing since April because of different factors like job cut and expiration of job contracts etc.
However, migrant rights activists said many of the returnee women were victims of wage theft, as they did not get full wage while returning home.
So, they are facing acute economic hardship now. The government should help the female workers to get back wages from their job destination countries.
According to a study, conducted by Bangladesh Nari Sramik Kendra (BNSK), local female domestic helps are forced to take extra workload in their job destination countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, although many of them remain unpaid there.
The study findings showed that about 76 per cent of the female migrants, who returned home during the coronavirus pandemic, did not get full wage from their employers.
But their workload increased 62 per cent than that of the previous time due to lockdown, imposed by the employing countries. On the other hand, only 22 per cent of the workers said they received meals regularly.
The surveyed working female workers were staying in the KSA, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, the UAE and Kuwait.
Jasiya Khatoon, director of WARBE Development Foundation, said the women workers are facing different kinds of rights violation at workplaces abroad, where wage theft is a common problem.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, such wage-related irregularities by the employers have increased in destination countries, especially in the ME region.
"We've talked to a notable number of returnee female workers, who could not bring home their full dues. Now they are facing financial crisis."
She mentioned that the government should take necessary initiatives to realise the workers' due wages.
Otherwise, they as well as the country will lose a significant amount of remittance, she added.
According to the data of Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), a total of 9,02,481 Bangladeshi women workers went abroad with jobs during the 1991-2019 period.
Most of them went to the ME countries as domestic helps, the statistics showed.
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