A resident of Singair upazila and wife of a drug addict, Khodeza went to Bahrain four years ago to work as a housemaid as she had no other alternative way to get out of debt.

Her husband married another woman after 20 years of their conjugal life and used to torture Khodeza and put pressure on her to give money for drugs.

To get rid of such agonising ordeal, Khodeza went to Bahrain but now she had no place to live in.

Like her, many women in Manikganj district flew to different Middle Eastern countries in order to change their fate but without knowing what lies in store for them. Even most of them fell victim to brokers and came back empty handed.

Around 200 or 300 women went abroad from the area in the last three months, according to the migrant workers who came back even without receiving their salary.

"I came back to my husband as he divorced his second wife and insisted on my return, but I found that my husband has sold out my house. Being dejected, I have divorced my husband and now I am trying to go abroad again," said Khodeza who is now living at her parent's house.

The social position of women who went abroad is more or less the same as Khodeza's. Husbands of most women grabbed the money from their wives and then married another woman. They are also branded as 'spoiled'.

Still, many women are eager to go abroad although there are many cases of workers coming back home within a month as the brokers arranged tourist visas for them in exchange of Tk 50,000.

The influence of the brokers is so strong that the women are ignoring the issue and dreaming of going abroad.

Josna, a 30-year-old woman, who is disappointed with society as well as her 'worthless' husband, is trying to go abroad as a housemaid.

"I don't know where to go, I just want to leave this society," she said. Her husband has been unemployed for long and they are living in her parent's house.

The middlemen are active in Singair upazila of Manikganj. They can easily lure the women who fell victim to dowry and river erosion. Also, illiteracy is another factor that helps the brokers victimise women, said the activists working to protect the rights of migrant works in the area.

Though the recruiting agencies claimed that they take Tk 35,000 from each migrant worker, most women have to spend Tk 60,000 to 80,000 for overseas employment.

"We have nothing to do in this case as the women, caught in the trap laid by the brokers, usually come to us after spending a lot of money," said Senior Executive of Al- Baraka International limited Arif Hossain Khan.

"We have a pre-departure training centre where we provide training for women trying to go abroad as workers," he added.

Many recruiting agencies as well as BAIRA has pre-departure training programmes, but that cannot stop the women from falling into the clutches of brokers due to lack of awareness at the grassroots level. A few organisations such as BOMSA, RMMRU and Shawsti are working to make the women aware about the issue.

Brokers can target the women easily due to absence of awareness programme of the government at grassroots level, said Sumaiya Islam, Project Director of Bangladesh Ovibasi Mohila Sramik Association (BOMSA).

The delay in finalising the Overseas Employment Policy on the part of the government also forces thousands of women to go to the brokers, she added.

Director General of Bangladesh Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) SM Wahiduzzaman said that the word 'middleman' has no existence in immigration ordinance and that the immigration department should check the trend of female migrant workers going abroad through unauthorised process.

The government should launch awareness campaign in this regard as female migrant workers send more remittance than male workers, said Ali Haider, secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA).

It is also vital to finalise the Overseas Employment Policy, which was drafted in November 2004, he said.