Female returnee migrants deserve a respectable life: The Daily Star

Words are not enough to express our frustration about the way our female returnee migrant workers are being treated by their families and communities after they have returned home from foreign lands, tortured and abused.

A research study conducted by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) has found that the returnee workers are facing social stigma as people in their communities often make disgraceful remarks about them, while their family members do not value their opinions anymore. Strangely, these same women used to be respected in their communities while they were sending hard-earned money back home.

The horrifying fact that many female migrant workers had to face sexual assault by their employers in the Middle East has now become a weapon for a section of people to attack them verbally.

Moreover, 25.2 per cent of the female returnees face crisis in their conjugal life, while 14.7 per cent got divorced and 10.5 per cent were left by their husbands after their return, as the research has found. The BILS study has also found that these women have now lost their decision-making power in their families, whereas, previously, they were considered empowered by their communities.

In a society that is generally insensitive towards gender violence and sexual exploitation of women, it is hardly surprising that their communities would also be judgemental or indifferent to their sufferings. But that is where we need to work the most. We need to sensitise these communities about our female migrant workers’ struggles, while making them aware of the contribution they made to our society.

Another major challenge that our returnee female migrants are facing is that a large percentage of them are unemployed at present, which makes them even more vulnerable not only at home, but at their communities as well. The BILS study has found that 60 per cent of the returnee workers are now unemployed.

The government and the organisations concerned should provide them skills training so they can get jobs here, which will definitely boost their confidence, or re-migrate should they choose to. In this regard, the Wage Earners’ Welfare Fund, formed with the contributions of the migrant workers, can be very useful.

The authorities can use money from this fund to retrain returnee female migrants for income-generating activities or help them in various other ways to improve their socioeconomic conditions.

We also need to form a social protection cell where our female migrants can come and discuss the issues they are facing, and can also lodge complaints when and if they face abusive behaviour in their communities.

Taking all these steps are absolutely necessary to reintegrate these women into society and to ensure that they have a chance to live a better life here.

The Daily Star is a member of The Straits Times media partner Asia News Network, an alliance of 23 news media organisations.

Agencies