A survey released by Bangladesh-based international development organization Brac on Friday reveals 87 percent of the country’s returnee migrants- amid the COVID-19 pandemic - are still struggling without any source of income in their changed circumstances.
More tellingly, 52 percent of the returnees said they need financial aid on an emergency basis, said Shariful Islam, head of Brac’s migration programme in a virtual meeting with journalists where the findings of a Brac survey titled ‘The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Life and Livelihoods of Returnee Migrants,’ were disclosed.
A third of the returnees, or 33 percent, said they can afford their living expenses for three months or a bit more, based on their present financial condition.
Brac, over mobile phone, conducted the survey among 558 immigrant workers, who have returned home from different countries.
Altogether a 20-member Brac team conducted the survey among the returnees from Dhaka, Tangail, Munshiganj, Shariatpur, Narsingdi, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Cumilla, Noakhali, Sirajganj, Rangpur, Khulna and Jashore districts.
Among the survey respondents, 45 percent immigrant workers returned from Saudi Arab, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait in the Middle East while the other 65 percent immigrant workers returned from Malaysia, Singapore, Itali, The Maldives and other countries.
However, among the survey attended, 86 percent returned home in March.
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Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.
Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.
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