After being illegal or failure to pass through immigration in destination countries, a total of 270,000 migrant workers were sent back home in last six years since 2008.
Officials at Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) said these migrant workers were forced to return home. But the government has no mechanism to keep statistical data on regular returnees, they added.
“When a migrant worker overstays his or her visa, ultimately he or she has to return home through one way travel permit (out pass),” a senior official told the Dhaka Tribune, seeking anonymity.
If a migrant fails to pass through immigration in any destination country due to lack of proper documents, he or she is deported from that country.
Expatriates’ Welfare Desk at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport has been keeping data on these two categories of migrants since 2008 and sending it to BMET dealing with the issues of migrant workers.
According to BMET, in the first three months of 2014, around 9,000 workers came back home from different countries, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Malaysia.
A total of 54,000 migrant workers returned home in 2008 while 72,000 in 2009, 43,000 in 2010, 39,000 in 2011, 18,000 in 2012 and 35,000 workers in 2013.
Talking to this correspondent at his office recently, BMET director (immigration) Abdul Latif said, “We have no data on deported migrant workers or those who came back with out-pass.”
Bangladesh labour counsellor in Jeddah Md Mokammal Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune recently that many people came here to perform Umrah and overstayed. When they become illegal, the authorities sent them back by one way travel permit, he added.
“Due to high migration cost, migrants usually want to overstay and work to recoup migration cost and ultimately they become illegal,” BMET Director General Begum Shamsun Nahar told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.
“Migrants are sent back with out-passes as they lose passports and documents. As far as I know, on average 10,000 migrants are sent back home every year,” she said.
