
Bangladesh Migrant Death: Every year a large number of people from Bangladesh go to other countries in search of work. Most of them work in Gulf countries. Many workers are returning home in coffins after facing terrible conditions in different parts of the world. In the year 2024, the bodies of Bangladeshi migrants returned to the country from abroad, which has reached a record level. According to the data of Wage Earners Welfare Board (WEWB), last year the bodies of 4813 people working in other countries reached Bangladesh.
4,552 bodies were returned to Bangladesh in 2023
According to WEWB data, this figure was 4,552 bodies in 2023. In the year 2022, the bodies of 3,818 people working abroad were returned to Bangladesh. This data has been presented on January 14. The exact reason behind the death of these people is not yet clear. Many people have died at a very young age. From 1993 to last year (2024), WEWB found 56,769 bodies of Bangladeshi migrants.
‘Work overtime’
Jasia Khatoon, director of the Welfare Association for the Rights of Bangladeshi Expatriates (WARBE) Development Foundation, said there could be several reasons for the premature death of many Bangladeshi expatriates abroad. According to the report of The Daily Star, he said that the reason behind the death of so many people could be an issue related to safety at the workplace. “Outside the workers live in substandard accommodation. They work overtime and do not get enough food,” he said.
Heart attack mentioned in death certificates
Jasia Khatoon said, usually the countries which hand over the bodies mention heart attack as the cause of death in the death certificates, but further medical examination should be done to know the exact cause of death. He suggested that the Ministry of Migrant Welfare and Foreign Employment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh should work together to increase surveillance of migrant workers to prevent premature deaths.
WEWB’s data does not indicate how many bodies came from which country last year. According to WEWB’s annual report, between July 2016 and June 2022, 17,871 bodies arrived in Bangladesh, of which 67.4 per cent came from six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. . Of these, 5,666 bodies came from Saudi Arabia, 1913 from UAE and 1893 from Oman.
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