End of change makers’ dream

The number of deaths of expatriate workers is rising faster every day. Bodies of 35,700 migrant workers have been received between 2005 and October 2019, among them, about 350 bodies are of women workers-often dubbed as the 'change makers' of their families back home.
Expatriate workers remitted around US$14.93 billion last year. Since 2015, women workforce has started to contribute to the wage earners' scheme like men, every year to try their luck, thousands also return, albeit in coffins and body bags.
"We received at least 11 coffins every day, but the number of deaths is believed to be higher as many workers are buried abroad and we do not have any idea about the illegal workers," Director General of the Wage Earners Welfare Board Gazi Muhammad Julhas told the Daily Observer on Monday.
A large number of these deaths are attributed to heart attacks and stroke. The death certificates said that 53 women committed suicide in their work places in Saudi Arabia.
In a recent press conference, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen claimed about 99 per cent of workers are just fine, they are sending remittances. However, the problem is with the remaining one per cent. About 2, 70,000 women were working there and we received only 53 dead bodies of our women workers, Momen claimed.
 "The causes are often listed as natural death, heart attack or cardiac arrest - the worker goes to bed      after an exhausting day of work and never wake up. We give Tk 35,000 to their family members for burial of the dead and Tk 3 lakh for legal steps. Sometimes the workers' families received Tk 40 lakh to Tk 50 lakh as compensation," he added.
It may be noted here that Bangladeshi migrant workers have the lowest per capita income in Saudi Arabia as they are getting only 800 Riyal, while the Nepalese or the Filipinos get between 1,600 Riyal and 2,000 Riyal. Bangladeshi worker would get 1200 Riyal to 1500 Riyal per month.
Citing example of migrant worker Sumi's recent death, Human Rigts activist Advocate Salma Ali said the official cause of death of Sumi was "inefficient oxygen," Sumi was among hundreds of Bangladeshi who leave home to work in Saudi Arabia -- and among half-dozen dead bodies that return every week. Like the others before her, she'd left in hopes of earning a better salary than she could get at home and better the lives for her family members," Salma Ali claimed.
"Reports of violence against female domestic workers by Arab employers in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are truly frightening.  Bangladeshi girls and women employed in the Middle East as domestic help are perhaps among the most abused. Human Rights Watch conducted a survey among Bangladeshi domestic workers in Oman and found almost all of them have been abused by their employers, including physical and sexual violence," Salma Ali said.
 The Middle Eastern countries are not new in doing wrong to the women workers, due to this some of the key exporters of domestic workers, such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Nepal have taken measures to curb such exports. The Bangladesh government is not unaware of the precarious condition in which Bangladeshi women working in the Arab countries find themselves in.  There are no genuine care or concern, let alone a legal framework, for their protection under the Labour Law, she added.
In 2016, the government took the initiative to host in London a Global Forum on Migrant Workers Rights.  The issue of domestic workers was included in the agenda of the forum. The gabfest did not produce much, except the usual expressions of concern and some unspecified assurances.
"If all these are only allegations and untrue, than why so many women are rushing to seek shelter in these government-run safe homes? More than 50 women have recently returned home in body bags. Why they chose to commit suicide, one would like to ask the Honourable Minister," Salma Ali said.
In arguing why these women face abuse, the concern Ministry always said most of them don't speak Arabic, nor have they any professional training. Sure, being unskilled they lack negotiating skills and can't bargain over the terms of their employment.  This obviously begs the question, when you know the real reason for continuing abuse, why do you allow our women to be exported without language and professional training? She asked.