Millions of migrant labourers working in the Gulf countries face an unprecedented crisis as the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe with disastrous consequences for the employment sector. Faced with loss of jobs and being exposed to the deadly virus in the absence of adequate protection, these migrants are returning to their own countries which lack proper policies for reintegrating them. The irregular migrants are usually the most vulnerable in the face of such unforeseen global crisis.
This makes it all the more necessary for the researchers, experts and activists to engage in critical conversations regarding the issue in order to interrogate the consequences of the present pandemic on the migrants employed in the Gulf. On 27th May 2020, a panel discussion on the topic “Gulf Migration: During and Aftermath COVID -19” was conducted by the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT).
Dr. AKM Ahsan Ullah from the University of Brunei Darussalam spoke aboutthe impact of the ongoing pandemic on the Bangladeshi migrants in the Gulf and the unsympathetic treatment meted out to them both at home and abroad by the government, the disastrous effects on the economy and the plight of female migrants.
Disowned both home and abroad
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of migrants became infected leading to racist discourses in the region. The accommodations in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries are not fit for living with four persons confined to a single room and some even having no access to running water. There is no scope for observing the guidelines of social distancing laid down the WHO.
When these migrants came back to Bangladesh, they were kept confined in a single building only to be left free to travel back to their homes by buses, launches and trains. They were allowed to come in contact with the crowd which exposes the lack of proper planning and coordination by the government. There is no data about how many of them brought back the virus. About one hundred thousand migrants are still waiting to come back.
Slump in economy and glaring lack of unemployment looming
Bangladesh has been and is going to be one of the worst hit countries in the world as it receives around fifteen billion dollars annually as remittances which constitutes about nine to ten percent of the GDP. This money has come from about nine million Bangladeshi migrants, half of whom are from the gulf region.
Dr. Ullah estimates a decline of twenty to thirty percent in remittances as about two hundred thousand Bangladeshi migrants are set to lose their jobs in the Gulf with no plans for reintegrating them at home as well. Around seventy eight percent of these migrants will be left without any employment as they have been away for about five to ten years.
No respite for female migrants
Lastly, Dr. Ullah stressed that the Bangladeshi government, under pressure to send more female migrants, started sending them out in large numbers from 2016 even though they were not ready at the time. Narrating an instance which highlighted the plight of the female migrants coming back from the Gulf, Dr. Ullah lamented that a group of twenty eight female migrants who came back had all their belongings packed in a single trolley bag. Stories of brutalities suffered by them in the Gulf were dismissed as made-up by the Expatriate Welfare Ministry. The policy makers have turned a deaf ear to their accounts of exploitation which only aggravates and perpetuates their misery.
Subhadip Mukherjee is currently pursuing Master’s degree in English at the University of Delhi. His interest areas include Postcolonial studies, Transnationalism, Cosmopolitanism, Diaspora literature, Literary theory, Indian writing in English and Climate fiction. Twitter profile:@SubhadipMuk.