THE plights of exploited migrant workers have fallen on deaf ears of successive governments as the number of death in destination countries continues to increase. The Wage Earners and Welfare Board says that at least 4,261 Bangladeshis died abroad in July 2023–June 2024. Official statistics also report a staggering 41,053 death in 2002–2021. A WEWB official says that 68 per cent of the death are ‘unnatural.’ Authorities in destination countries, however, mostly categorise such death as ‘natural’ or ‘not work-related’, but they so do without post-mortem examinations. Considering the climate of the Middle East, while some death could be attributed to heat stroke, many migrants who returned have listed strenuous, exploitative working conditions as hidden causes of such death. Families of the workers say that they not only suffer the loss of a young earning member but also endure long, agonising wait for the bodies and making compensation claims. Migration experts say that the attempt to promptly categorise the death as ‘natural’ closes the ways to claim compensation and allows employers to avoid responsibility for repatriating the body or face legal consequences for any rights violation. They, rather, seek post-mortem examinations to identify the actual reasons for the death.
WEWB officials insist that respective missions provide shelter for workers in crisis and assist them with health care and legal aid but pass the responsibility on to workers when they say that only increased awareness among workers could rectify the situation. That families of the deceased struggle to repatriate the body contradicts the government’s claim. There are cases in which bodies remain in mortuaries overseas for more than a year or were buried in destination countries as their travel documents were confiscated on arrival. Migrant rights activists blame the government for failing the workers on at least three counts. The expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry fail to control the recruitment cost and eliminate exploitative intermediaries. In most destination countries, Bangladesh does not have an effective labour wing to provide legal and social support for aggrieved workers. The government has a foundational role in making violations of its citizens’ rights in host countries and, if necessary, taking up the issues with international forums. The government, sadly, took little initiative to make any change in the situation.
The government must, therefore, initiate a process of conducting post-mortem examinations of repatriated deceased workers, identify the reasons for the death and, in the case of workplace death, initiate diplomatic dialogues with the destination countries to hold negligent employers to justice and ensure compensation for workers. What is concerning is not just the denial of migrant worker rights to safe migration but also a high number of death of migrant workers that the government should immediately bring to the attention of international bodies, including the Colombo Process, the Bali Process and the Abu Dhabi dialogue.