Trade
4 years ago

Outflow of women workers up

Representational photo — Collected
Representational photo — Collected

Published :

Updated :

The outflow of women migrant workers has increased by about 7.0 per cent in nine months of this year, compared to the same period of the last year.

More women workers went abroad during the period even as allegations of exploitations at workplaces were rife.

According to the data of Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), a total of 78,045 women went abroad for jobs during the January-September period, up from 73,065 in the first nine months of 2018.

Of them, 47,283 women or 60 per cent of the total went to Saudi Arabia, 13,837 (17 per cent) to Jordan and 8,925 (11 per cent) to Oman.

Migrant rights activists said women workers were still facing harassment at workplaces. As a result, they are unwilling to stay there any longer and coming back home, especially from Saudi Arabia.

The authority should focus on quality migration instead of quantity, they said.

Currently, more than 80 per cent of women are working as domestic helps in the Middle East countries.

According to the BRAC migration programme, BRAC workers have provided supports to 850 women workers after they arrived at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from Saudi Arabia in the last nine months.

The women had to return home because of different types of exploitations at their workplaces.

Besides, about 500 women are staying at the safe home in Saudi Arabia regularly before returning home.

Because of workplaces harassments, at least 10,000 female workers returned home from different countries in the Middle East in the last four years.

WARBE Development Foundation secretary general Faruque Ahmed said they are still receiving complaints from women workers staying in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan.

"So, I think the situation has not changed," he said, adding that the government should give priority to quality of migration.

He also said women workers should be given other kinds of job instead of domestic help.

About 0.9 million Bangladeshi women went abroad with jobs during the period from 1991 to September 2019, according to BMET data.

[email protected]

Share this news