COVID-19: Impact on the Bangladeshi origin people in overseas countries

 

The virulent coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) had infected Bangladeshis even before it has surfaced in the territory of Bangladesh by impacting the lives of thousands of emigrants and expatriates living in overseas countries. The initial COVID-19 related mortality and morbidity figures suggest that Bangladeshis living in Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries and a few Asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Maldives)and other high-income countries (e.g. UK, USA) were disproportionally impacted and remained at high risk of getting the infection. In addition, the consequence of the pandemic has been exacerbated the difficulties faced by the Bangladeshi people working abroad in terms of large-scale job loss, redundancy, salary reduction, and gradual increase of involuntary deportation from the Gulf region and a few Asian countries. Since January 2020, Bangladeshi expatriates from various labor-receiving countries (i.e. mainly the GCC states) have been involuntarily deported, for many there is no guarantee to return to work abroad in the future. So, on one hand, the expatriates are depressed about the uncertain future, while on other hand they faced stigmatization for spreading the virus from the wider Bangladeshi community. In this context, we will discuss some facts in relation to pandemic-induced vulnerability and sufferings of the Bangladeshi origin people living in overseas countries.

Remittances sent by the migrant workers living in the Gulf region (i.e. GCC states-Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) and other overseas countries are a crucial pillar of the Bangladesh economy. Around 4.2 million Bangladeshis live in GCC states, half of whom are in Saudi Arabia. Most of the GCC expatriates are unskilled and from most poverty-ridden regions of Bangladesh, almost all of them are contact migrants working in low-wage occupations, such as: working in construction and industries or street vending. These lower-income Bangladeshi expatriates often live in squalid, overcrowded, and unhygienic dormitories because they cannot afford decent housing after remitting money to their families. These unhealthy living arrangements have long been criticized by human-rights activists and further posed a warning of disease transmission at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. Bangladeshi expatriates were disproportionately impacted and died in the beginning of the pandemic in GCC states.

Particularly, Bangladeshis have accounted for nearly one-third and one-fifth of all COVID-19 related deaths in Saudi Arabia and Oman respectively as of July 2020. Not only in the Gulf region, Bangladeshis living in other labor receiving Asian countries like Singapore and Maldives are also disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 diseases probably because of crowded and squalid living conditions. In high-income countries like the USA and UK, the initial evidence indicates that Bangladeshis were more likely to be disproportionately affected. In the UK, Public Health England's (PHE) analysis suggests that Bangladeshis had around twice the risk of death when compared to the people of White British during March to May 2020. By and large, Bangladeshis are disproportionately impacted by the virus because of poverty, health inequality (e.g. UK), overcrowded and substandard housing (e.g. Qatar, Oman), and other socio-cultural factors such as intergenerational household (e.g. UK) and social mixing among households (e.g. USA).

In addition to disproportionate COVID-19 mortality and morbidity, many Bangladeshi expatriates have lost their jobs as a consequence of lockdown, particularly those who had been working in aviation, tourism, transportation, retail, hospitality, amusement, and street vending, etc. Since January, thousands of Bangladeshis have been involuntarily deported particularly from GCC countries, many of whom returned without expected earnings to repay their debts. Though Bangladesh Government does not maintain records on the returnees, however, Bangladesh Government accepted all involuntary and voluntary returnees who were entrapped, deported, or returned from overseas due to fear, insecurity, and uncertainty in relation to COVID-19 diseases. Despite lacking public health structures, the Government transformed a pilgrimage center (i.e. Ashkona Hajj Camp) into the main quarantine center to institutionally quarantine the travelers from overseas for a fourteen-day period. From 19th March, Bangladesh Army was assigned for the overall management of the appointed Ashkona Hajj Camp Quarantine Center where a total of 1368 Bangladeshi returnees were institutionally quarantining as of 18th July 2020, most of whom were returnees from the Gulf region (446, 358, and 337 Bangladeshi returnees from Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait respectively).

For many of these deported expatriates, there is no guarantee to be able to return to work abroad until the global labor market recovers from the COVID-19 induced recession. Their sudden loss of income and unexpected financial, as well as mental hardships, are also acutely impacting their families as well as many remittance-dependent communities across the country. Moreover, the returnees became the subject of stigmatization for being the possible COVID-19 carriers to trigger community transmission. The worldwide pandemic situation demonstrates that infectious diseases may not be geographically contained in this age because of international mobility. Therefore, it is not plausible to blame returnees for spreading the virus as some advanced countries have failed to restrict its transmission with a little knowledge of the virus and its transmission dynamics during the beginning of the pandemic. Moreover, lack of public awareness, widespread panic, anxiety, superstitions, the proliferation of misleading and wrong information has further segregated and marginalized the returnees from the wider community and thereby probably restrict them from receiving mental and social supports.

The unhealthy living condition of the low-income expatriates have been criticized by human-rights activists for a long-time, however, the situation did not improve and caused disproportionate deaths of the Bangladeshi people in Saudi-Arabia, Qatar, and other Gulf courtiers. Not only the GC countries, but countries like Malaysia also are showing harsh attitudes to Bangladeshi expatriates with false hope of taking care of the migrants during the pandemic time. It is a matter of pride for Bangladesh for giving refuge to the 1.1 million Muslim Rohingyas who are now living in the world's largest refugee camps, but unfortunately, at the same time, 8 million Bangladeshi expatriates also living in the squalid condition in overseas countries and increasingly receiving ill-treatment and forced deportation. Also, the high-income countries like the US and UK are criticized for overlooking the socio-economic inequalities for decades which might have impacted disproportionately to the Bangladeshi origin people. On the questions of Bangladeshi returnees, Government needs to support the returnees in re-employment by re-establishing a link with labor receiving countries, so that, they can get back to the overseas countries to continue their previous jobs. Overall, there is an urgent need to emphasize the COVID-19 impact on the Bangladeshi origin people in overseas countries, unfortunately, the unfair and disproportionate COVID-19 impact on Bangladeshi immigrants and expatriates received less attention to date.


Dr. Farjana Islam, Ph.D. in Urban Studies, Heriot-Watt University
Email: [email protected]