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Covid-19: 37,000 expat workers who have lost their jobs to return home Covid-19
File Picture Expats returning back to Bangladesh

Covid-19: 37,000 expat workers who have lost their jobs to return home

Bangladesh Live News | @banglalivenews | 06 Oct 2020, 05:49 pm

Dhaka, 6 October: Expatriate workers working in different countries of the world have been playing an important role in the country's economy by sending remittances. But this year, the fate of thousands of expatriate Bangladeshi workers has been ruined due to the coronavirus epidemic.

In the last seven months, there are no jobs from 11 countries in the world, so the number of expatriate workers who have been forced to return to the country is more than 37,000.

The countries from which migrant workers have returned due to lack of work are South Africa, Qatar, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Turkey and Lebanon.

According to the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment, thousands of expatriate workers are returning to the country for various reasons besides lack of work.

180,573 expatriates have returned to the country from April 1 to October 3 after the onset of the global pandemic.

Among them, 153,391 are men and 18,162 are women.

About 5,000 expatriates have returned in the first three days of October.

The highest number of expatriates returned from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Of the 11 countries expats have been forced to return, 71 were from South Africa, 13,871 from Qatar, 7,334 from Malaysia, 32 from Thailand, 39 from Myanmar and 106 from Cambodia.

Seven thousand 639 returned from Iraq, 545 from Sri Lanka, 437 from Mauritius, 6,023 from Turkey and 2,211 from Lebanon.

Apart from the reason for not having a job, the employment contract has expired, they have been imprisoned for different periods through outpass, some have returned to the country under general amnesty due to lack of visa period.

Of the 26 countries returning from exile, 46,043 returned from the UAE. 40,494 returned from Saudi Arabia.

Other returnees include Singapore, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Maldives, South Korea, Jordan, Italy, Libya and Hong Kong.