Women’s labour migration from Bangladesh has declined sharply over the past four years, exposing a crisis rooted in unsafe conditions, abuse, and the state’s failure to secure dignified work abroad. According to BMET, only 40,088 women migrated up to September this year—down from 61,158 in 2024, 76,108 in 2023, and 105,466 in 2022. Before the pandemic, more than one lakh women migrated annually. Most workers are sent to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Jordan, and Lebanon—largely into domestic or garment work, sectors marked by low protection and high vulnerability.
Behind the numbers are widespread patterns of violence. Studies show that returning women workers face systematic abuse: 94% report physical and psychological torture, 47% report sexual harassment, 97% are denied medical care, and 80% do not receive enough food. Most work from dawn to midnight, lack weekly leave, and often have no employment contracts before departure. Many survivors describe being trapped in employers’ homes, pushed into forced labour or sexual exploitation, or sent back in trauma and debt.
The consequences are devastating. According to the Wage Earners Welfare Board, 412 bodies of female migrant workers were repatriated between 2021 and 2025, including 84 suicides. Official reports often cite “natural causes,” but nearly half of families reject these explanations. The lack of legal protection, oversight of recruitment intermediaries, and state accountability leaves women workers exposed to violence with little possibility of justice.
Experts say the decline in migration reflects a wider crisis of governance. Bangladesh has failed to open new labour markets, expand skills training for women, or negotiate safer migration pathways. Countries like Indonesia now train women for care and nursing sectors to reduce dependence on high-risk domestic work—steps Bangladesh has not taken. As long as unskilled women are sent into unsafe, unregulated work abroad, the cycle of abuse, return, and loss will continue. Protecting migrant women requires structural reform, not temporary rescue.
Bangladesh Feminist Archives 