Most expatriate workers die from stress stemming from the burden of migration cost, Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain has said.
A total of 2,496 expatriate workers died in 2013, the minister said at a press briefing in the capital on Wednesday. “Among them, 738 were unnatural deaths.”
“While abroad, they are obsessed with earning money to make up for the cost they spend for migrating abroad,” he said. “So they work hard. Many collapse.”
The government has stepped in to improve the situation, the minister added.
Now under government management, a worker needs to spend Tk27, 000 to go to Malaysia, what was about Tk3 lakh in the past, he said.
And, now it costs Tk17, 000 to go to Saudi Arabia, which was about Tk5 lakh a few years ago, he said.
Under government supervision, the workers are chosen at random from the official database. In this case, the government also considers the working conditions before sending workers abroad.
He also said the total number of workers from Bangladesh working abroad will be around 8.7 million. “In this consideration the death rate is not high.”