Pay heed to the remittance fighters

Migrant workers and their dependents may face a variety of social and health issues as a result of the loss of remittances due to the Covid-19 crisis, including unemployment, food and nutrition insecurity, inability to pay for their family members' education, a lack of access to health facilities, depression, etc.

According to the World Bank, Bangladesh has one of the world's biggest emigrant populations, with over 10 million Bangladeshis currently working abroad. Their contributions are vital to Bangladesh, which has decreased poverty in recent decades. Expatriate income contributes at least 10 percent to GDP. Last year, Bangladesh received about $19.8 billion in remittance. Migrant workers' remittances also serve a critical part in supporting the livelihood of roughly 30 million of their dependents.
With the increase of incidents of COVID-19 around the world as well as in Bangladesh, commercial flights have been limited in and outside the country. As a result, an immense number of migrant workers are trapped, affected, and in dire circumstances. Many returning migrants are stuck in Bangladesh who came before the incidents of covid-19.   The situation may delay their return to the host countries with new restrictions on banning and suspending international flights.
Migrant workers and their dependents may face a variety of social and health issues as a result of the loss of remittances due to the Covid-19 crisis, including unemployment, food and nutrition insecurity, inability to pay for their family members' education, a lack of access to health facilities, depression, child labour, broken families, social inequality, and even a rise in suicidal thoughts. The research found that international returnee migrants in Bangladesh have reported borrowing money, reducing expenditure, and depending on donations to cope with financial issues and repay debt. Their household debt has increased and they are adopting negative coping measures like reducing expenditure on health and food.
More than one crore people of Bangladesh work in 169 countries of the world. About 75 percent of these jobs are in the Middle East. In Kuwait, around 5 lakh Bangladeshis work. Many of them are stuck in Bangladesh who came here before the incident of Covid-19, they couldn’t return because of the pandemic and now they want to go to Kuwait.
Many relatives of mine work in Kuwait and some of them are stuck in Bangladesh and want to go to Kuwait. They often ask me to collect information on how they could return to Kuwait. I have been trying to collect information from the ministry of foreign affairs, the ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment, and the Embassy of Kuwait in Bangladesh via email and phone. Neither via mobile phone nor email, I have been able to collect information. I was lucky that I could collect information from the Kuwait ministry of foreign affairs, and a Facebook community named "Kuwait page for Bangladeshi".
I have seen that many people have no idea which vaccines are approved in Kuwait. They failed to collect information from Bangladeshi officials. It's not easy to communicate with the Kuwait ministry of foreign affairs due to language barriers, not even many of them are used to using email and other means of communication because the majority of them are involved in low-paid jobs, including driving, cleaning, construction, and domestic work and help in abroad.
When authentic information is absent, rumors spread there promptly. As most of the returning migrants don't have any kind of institutional education, they can't prioritize the authentic information from rumors. Whoever shares rumors from them they don't even know it's a rumor. So, the government has a role to play here, government can initiate an emergency helpline where authentic information will be available thus returning migrants could get answers to their every query via mobile device.
Bangladesh government is providing vaccines, especially to the returning migrants which are praiseworthy. To return to host countries like Kuwait, one must take both doses of vaccines approved in Kuwait. Many people have taken the Pfizer vaccine as the first dose but now this vaccine is not available. As the second dose government is providing the Moderna vaccine which might be clinically harmful. The government hasn’t made it clear yet which vaccine will be provided as the second dose. Whoever hasn’t taken any vaccine doses yet should be given the Johnston & Johnson vaccine because with one doze of Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine migrants will be able to return to Kuwait. A survey shows that the residency of many returning migrants of Kuwait will be expired in August. So, the government must take it into account and should provide them Johnston & Johnson’s vaccines.
Kuwait ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of health continuously updates its policy via Twitter.  By which many people get information easily what they need to do to return to Kuwait.  In the case of Bangladesh, the Ministry of Expatriates' welfare and overseas employment can update migrants via a Facebook page. They can inform the returning migrants from all over the world who are stuck in Bangladesh what they need to do now to return. They can inform the host countries’ policies about returning like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and many other countries. The government should initiate an emergency helpline or help desk to help the people.
Many returning migrants have found mistakes in their covid-19 certificate. They have been asked to email the concerned officials to correct the information but according to many people they haven’t received any update or any kind of reply from email.
About 50 thousand people around the world applied for the validation of their covid-19 certificate in the Kuwait ministry of health but the ministry only approved 12 thousand applications. This is because of the absence of correct information. In Bangladesh, whoever provides vaccines should be aware of writing the batch number of the vaccine because if they somehow make mistake, it can be a reason for returning migrants not to be able to return.
To apply for the residency of Kuwait one must have one year of validity of their passport. To renew the passport, one needs a national identity card in Bangladesh but on the contrary, many of the returning migrants do not have any national identity card. They have made their passport with a birth registration certificate but now they need a national identity card to renew it. As many of the returning migrants didn’t have the opportunity to apply for the national identity card because they were working abroad, the government should give them a chance to renew it with a birth certificate.
As we call them remittance fighters, we must help them when they are in great need. We know how they contribute to fostering our economy, we know how many families in Bangladesh depend on them. Government should beef up on these issues as all ministries related to migrant workers should be flexible enough to provide information so that it can be helpful for migrant workers to return who is now stuck in our country.
 
The writer is Research Assistant, Centre for Advanced Social Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: sohrabhossenbu@gmail.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Pay heed to the remittance fighters

Migrant workers and their dependents may face a variety of social and health issues as a result of the loss of remittances due to the Covid-19 crisis, including unemployment, food and nutrition insecurity, inability to pay for their family members education, a lack of access to health facilities, depression, etc.

According to the World Bank, Bangladesh has one of the worlds biggest emigrant populations, with over 10 million Bangladeshis currently working abroad. Their contributions are vital to Bangladesh, which has decreased poverty in recent decades. Expatriate income contributes at least 10 percent to GDP. Last year, Bangladesh received about $19.8 billion in remittance. Migrant workers remittances also serve a critical part in supporting the livelihood of roughly 30 million of their dependents. With the increase of incidents of COVID-19 around the world as well as in Bangladesh, commercial flights have been limited in and outside the country. As a result, an immense number of migrant workers are trapped, affected, and in dire circumstances. Many returning migrants are stuck in Bangladesh who came before the incidents of covid-19. The situation may delay their return to the host countries with new restrictions on banning and suspending international flights. Migrant workers and their dependents may face a variety of social and health issues as a result of the loss of remittances due to the Covid-19 crisis, including unemployment, food and nutrition insecurity, inability to pay for their family members education, a lack of access to health facilities, depression, child labour, broken families, social inequality, and even a rise in suicidal thoughts. The research found that international returnee migrants in Bangladesh have reported borrowing money, reducing expenditure, and depending on donations to cope with financial issues and repay debt. Their household debt has increased and they are adopting negative coping measures like reducing expenditure on health and food. More than one crore people of Bangladesh work in 169 countries of the world. About 75 percent of these jobs are in the Middle East. In Kuwait, around 5 lakh Bangladeshis work. Many of them are stuck in Bangladesh who came here before the incident of Covid-19, they couldnt return because of the pandemic and now they want to go to Kuwait. Many relatives of mine work in Kuwait and some of them are stuck in Bangladesh and want to go to Kuwait. They often ask me to collect information on how they could return to Kuwait. I have been trying to collect information from the ministry of foreign affairs, the ministry of expatriates welfare and overseas employment, and the Embassy of Kuwait in Bangladesh via email and phone. Neither via mobile phone nor email, I have been able to collect information. I was lucky that I could collect information from the Kuwait ministry of foreign affairs, and a Facebook community named Kuwait page for Bangladeshi. I have seen that many people have no idea which vaccines are approved in Kuwait. They failed to collect information from Bangladeshi officials. Its not easy to communicate with the Kuwait ministry of foreign affairs due to language barriers, not even many of them are used to using email and other means of communication because the majority of them are involved in low-paid jobs, including driving, cleaning, construction, and domestic work and help in abroad. When authentic information is absent, rumors spread there promptly. As most of the returning migrants dont have any kind of institutional education, they cant prioritize the authentic information from rumors. Whoever shares rumors from them they dont even know its a rumor. So, the government has a role to play here, government can initiate an emergency helpline where authentic information will be available thus returning migrants could get answers to their every query via mobile device. Bangladesh government is providing vaccines, especially to the returning migrants which are praiseworthy. To return to host countries like Kuwait, one must take both doses of vaccines approved in Kuwait. Many people have taken the Pfizer vaccine as the first dose but now this vaccine is not available. As the second dose government is providing the Moderna vaccine which might be clinically harmful. The government hasnt made it clear yet which vaccine will be provided as the second dose. Whoever hasnt taken any vaccine doses yet should be given the Johnston Johnson vaccine because with one doze of Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine migrants will be able to return to Kuwait. A survey shows that the residency of many returning migrants of Kuwait will be expired in August. So, the government must take it into account and should provide them Johnston Johnsons vaccines. Kuwait ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of health continuously updates its policy via Twitter. By which many people get information easily what they need to do to return to Kuwait. In the case of Bangladesh, the Ministry of Expatriates welfare and overseas employment can update migrants via a Facebook page. They can inform the returning migrants from all over the world who are stuck in Bangladesh what they need to do now to return. They can inform the host countries policies about returning like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and many other countries. The government should initiate an emergency helpline or help desk to help the people. Many returning migrants have found mistakes in their covid-19 certificate. They have been asked to email the concerned officials to correct the information but according to many people they havent received any update or any kind of reply from email. About 50 thousand people around the world applied for the validation of their covid-19 certificate in the Kuwait ministry of health but the ministry only approved 12 thousand applications. This is because of the absence of correct information. In Bangladesh, whoever provides vaccines should be aware of writing the batch number of the vaccine because if they somehow make mistake, it can be a reason for returning migrants not to be able to return. To apply for the residency of Kuwait one must have one year of validity of their passport. To renew the passport, one needs a national identity card in Bangladesh but on the contrary, many of the returning migrants do not have any national identity card. They have made their passport with a birth registration certificate but now they need a national identity card to renew it. As many of the returning migrants didnt have the opportunity to apply for the national identity card because they were working abroad, the government should give them a chance to renew it with a birth certificate. As we call them remittance fighters, we must help them when they are in great need. We know how they contribute to fostering our economy, we know how many families in Bangladesh depend on them. Government should beef up on these issues as all ministries related to migrant workers should be flexible enough to provide information so that it can be helpful for migrant workers to return who is now stuck in our country. The writer is Research Assistant, Centre for Advanced Social Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: sohrabhossenbu@gmail.com