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The arrival of Bangladeshi workers back home from different countries has been continuing since April as the upshot of the coronavirus outbreak.
More than 85,790 workers have returned home from 26 countries during the period due to factors like job cuts, irregular status and expiration of contracts.
The expatriates' welfare desk at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport revealed the latest data.
The workers returned home between April 01 and August 26. Of them, 80,133 were male and 5,657 female.
Officials said a significant number of the returnees were in prison prior to their departure for home.
A total of 27,658 of them are from the United Arab Emirates followed by Saudi Arabia 17,317, the Maldives 8,191, Kuwait 7,549, Qatar 7,129 and Oman 5,403.
Due to the economic impact of Covid-19, many Bangladeshis have lost jobs in their destination countries. Besides, those who went abroad recently did not manage employment opportunities.
They are also returning home empty-handed.
Apart from the expiry of job contracts, many women returned home because of workplace exploitation like denial of wages and mental as well as physical torture, insiders have said.
Migrant rights activists said most of the returnees are now living in acute economic hardship.
They suggested providing financial support for the hapless workers' sustainable reintegration.
Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Programme (OKUP) chairman Shakirul Islam said it would create a grave crisis if the returnees are not brought under a sustainable reintegration programme.
They are returning almost pauper. So, it is needed to make sure income generating activities to them as soon as possible, he observed.
The newly introduced loans by Probashi Kallyan Bank should be disseminated properly so that workers get benefits, Mr Islam suggested.
According to a recent Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU) study, 74 per cent of the returnees failed to bring home remittance from their job destination countries.
An estimated 74 per cent of the returnees left behind a significant amount of remittance abroad.
On average, each victim lost Tk 175,000 (minimum Tk 9,500 and maximum Tk 500,000), the RMMRU study showed. It suggested realising the lost remittances and also offer necessary support to the returnees.
Meanwhile, Probashi Kallyan Bank has undertaken a loan scheme of Tk 2.0 billion for the returned workers' income-generating activities. Each worker will get Tk 100,000 to Tk 500,000 based on his or her income-generating project proposal. The rate of interest has been fixed at 4.0 per cent.
The government has also made a move to ensure humanitarian aid to migrant workers and their families hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
An estimated 12 million Bangladeshis have gone abroad with jobs since 1976.