More women going abroad for work

Hoping to ensure her family's bread and butter, Lucky Akhter (32) decided to migrate to the United Arab Emirates to work as a cleaner.

A mother of three, Lucky said working at a company in Dubai will fetch her 800 dirhams a month for two years. This will be great for her four-member family in Narayanganj.

"I want to raise my children properly and ensure a good future for them," she told this newspaper over the phone recently.

She has a 17-year-old married daughter and two sons, who are 15 and four years old, respectively.

She said the necessary procedures for her migration were completed through a recruiting agency in Dhaka, and a flight was expected in October 22.

After a downturn amid the pandemic, Bangladesh is seeing an encouraging picture of women migrating for work this year, as thousands have already migrated.

However, ensuring their safety and well-being in host countries remains a concern. Studies suggest female migrants often face various pre- and post-migration challenges.

According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), this year, 76,579 women have gone overseas for jobs till August, with an average of 9,572 migrations per month.

At this rate, the number of female-worker migrations this year is likely to surpass last year's and the pre-pandemic stage of 2019, when 1.04 lakh women went abroad.

Last year, 80,143 women went abroad for jobs, while the number in 2020, amid the pandemic, was only 21,934, BMET data show.

Between 1991 and August this year, about 10.8 lakh female workers migrated to different countries, according to BMET.

While this year's numbers are encouraging, there are reasons to be worried about their safety abroad, said Sumaiya Islam, executive director of Bangladesh Nari Sramik Kendra.

Sumaiya said this year, many women from rural areas of Khulna and Manikganj migrated abroad because their families face debt, which they incurred during the pandemic.

Also, undocumented returnee male migrants, who returned home empty-handed amid the pandemic, could not re-migrate. As a result, many women from such families intend to go abroad to make ends meet, she added.

Sumaiya said they receive phone calls from women workers from abroad and their families. They complain about the lack of safety measures.

She stressed providing proper training for these workers and their orderly migration, to avoid exploitation abroad.

This year, Saudi Arabia remains the top work destination, with 48,727 women hired. Besides, Oman hired 13,232 women, Jordan 10,229, and UAE 1,248, BMET data show.

In a field-level study, Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program (Okup) found that of 156 Saudi-returnee women, 80 returned home before completion of the two-year contract, while 50 returned within a year.

Okup provided reintegration support to the returnee women between April 2020 and July 2022.

Okup in its 2021 study report "Access to Justice for Bangladeshi Migrant Workers: Opportunities and Challenges", conducted with 262 female migrants, found that nearly 45 percent of the women had not received the promised wages and benefits.

About 88 percent were not provided with a written job contract before migration, it says.

A 2019 expatriates' welfare ministry report found that irregular payment and physical and sexual torture were the top reasons for the early return of over 100 women from Saudi Arabia.

In many cases, challenges faced by female migrant workers are ignored, said Okup Chairperson Shakirul Islam.

"Instead, there is a tendency in the government to blame their [migrants'] lack of knowledge for falling into a vulnerable situation," he said.

Most women migrate abroad to work as domestic workers, and the government support service for those facing challenges is not satisfactory yet, he added.

He urged the government to take steps so that the women get paid on time, communicate with their families uninterruptedly, and remit money home without hassle.

Asked, an official of BMET admitted that there are challenges regarding female migration from Bangladesh.

"We try our level best to mitigate the challenges," the official told this newspaper over the phone, preferring anonymity.

The Bangladesh government from time to time raises issues before the host countries, while the bureau also arranges hearings to resolve disputes regarding female migration, the official added.