At a loss in Lebanon
With no jobs or low wages for months in crisis-hit Lebanon, Bangladeshi migrants are now borrowing money from home for their survival. As coronavirus spreading fast in the middle-eastern country and businesses are closing down, their future has become further uncertain.
Abdul Aziz Hawlader, 35, from Shariatpur could be a classic case in point.
"I have been jobless for eight months. Frustrated, I had decided to return home and applied for travel pass around five months back, but have yet to get it," he told The Daily Star from Lebanon on Sunday.
On that day, Lebanese troops began patrolling the city streets and major roads, setting up roadblocks and urging people to stay home amid official warnings that the country is struggling to contain the virus outbreak, reported Arab News.
After the number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 248 the same day, an increase of 18 from the previous day, Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said, "The situation is worrying. We must save ourselves, our families and our country before it's too late."
The crisis of COVID-19 comes following months of economic crisis with an acute dollar shortage leading banks to restrict foreign currency withdrawals in the heavily dollarised economy. Thousands of employees have been laid off or had their working hours and wages slashed, while prices of essentials have gone up significantly, according to international media.
Lebanon has also been going through a political crisis. Large-scale demonstrations demanding an end to corruption and the ouster of sectarian leaders, who have ruled the country since its civil war ended in 1990, brought down the government of Saad Hariri on October 29 last year.
Combine of all the crises left the migrants, including some 1.6 lakh Bangladeshis -- of whom around 30,000 are undocumented -- on the margins. More than half the Bangladeshis are women who work as domestic workers.
Abdul Aziz said he had gone to Lebanon in 2014 to work as a sewing operator for a sofa manufacturing company, spending Tk 5.5 lakh. For the next two years, he had to pay Tk 3 lakh to his employer for getting his work permit renewed.
The next year, he paid Tk 1 lakh more to his company for work permit renewal, but in vain. Since then he has been undocumented.
"I did not have regular job then, but still I managed some work and survived. However, for the last eight months I have no job at all. I am now borrowing money from my relatives in Bangladesh," he said, adding that so far he took one lakh taka from home.
In five years, Aziz said, he could basically recoup the money that he had spent to migrate there. "This means five years are almost lost from my life. I could gain almost nothing," he said.
Rana Ahmed, another Bangladeshi in Lebanon, shared similar views. He also said he had been waiting for going to Bangladesh for the last several months, but is yet to get clearance.
"I could work a few days only a month. Now with coronavirus, I am confined in a room. I had some money, but it's almost over. I am not sure what comes next," he said.
Many of the Bangladeshi migrants in Lebanon he knows are borrowing either from relatives in Bangladesh or friends in Lebanon, he said.
"We are totally stuck here. Even the locals are trying to avoid all the migrants due to coronavirus that began since January," Rana said.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh embassy is now not registering the undocumented workers for return home due to the virus outbreak, while all flights for Bangladesh have been suspended.
Abdullah Al Mamun, first secretary at the embassy in Lebanon, admitted that the situation was actually bad and that many of the Bangladeshi migrants were borrowing from home for their survival.
More than 7,600 undocumented Bangladeshi migrants had applied for travel permit to return home since October last year. However, so far the General Security Division of Lebanon has cleared nearly 4,500. Of them, 1,400 have already returned home, he said.
Last week, 200 migrants were scheduled to return to Bangladesh, but failed to fly because the flights were cancelled, he added.
"We had approached the International Organization for Migration if they could help repatriation of the migrants to Bangladesh, but they said they could not do it because Lebanon was not a member of IOM," Abdullah Al Mamun told The Daily Star on Monday.
The embassy is trying to ensure that undocumented Bangladeshis could return home as soon as possible.
"We are continuously communicating with the Lebanon's General Security Division that issues clearance certificates for those who want to return home after verification if they have any crime record.
"Now, the problem for migrant return is the suspension of flights due to coronavirus. We will have to wait for the Coronavirus crisis to be over," Mamun said.
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