Bangladesh hosts one of largest stateless populations of the Asia-Pacific region, but Bangladeshis are also among the largest migrant groups who are facing socio-economic and health risks during the pandemic, a new UN report suggests.
The Asia-Pacific Migration Report 2020 says migrants are at a heightened risk of contracting the disease, due to barriers to lack of access to basic health services.
“Lack of income has led to decreased affordability of healthy diets and overall access to food,” reads the report, adding that migrants have also been disproportionately affected by border closures and lockdowns, leaving many vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
However, the report explained, as essential workers and remittance providers, migrants are also key to recovering better.
After a decline in inflow of remittances in the first quarter, Bangladesh received higher remittances in the third quarter, thanks to migrants’ willingness to help their families back home, said the report released by UN ESCAP from Bangkok on Friday.
Bangladesh had almost 13.0 million labour migration movements since 1976, with over 6.0 million or 47 per centclassified as “less skilled”.
New Zealand, Australia and Bangladesh were found to be among the most accepting countries of migrants.
The reportmentioned that Bangladeshi hosts around 1.0 million people of irregular status – Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Bangladesh is also a major victim of human trafficking and experiences large domestic displacement, according to the report. It pointed out that China, Bangladesh, India and the Philippines witnessed more disaster displacement than all other countries in 2019 – around 70 per cent of the global total.
This is the region which saw, between 2009 and 2019, rise in remittances from $183 billion to $330 billion, nearly half of the 2019 global total of $717 billion.
“Today, the number of international migrants, to, from and within the region, is at an all-time high. Safe, orderly and regular migration can reduce the vulnerability of migrants and societies to the negative impacts of Covid-19 and future pandemics and help build back better, more resilient communities,” said UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.
Bangladesh is also among the top 10 recipients of remittances with India and China being the world’s largest remittance recipients.
According to the latest statistics, the Philippines receives $35 billion a year, Pakistan $22 billion a year and Bangladesh $18 billion remittances a year.
Bangladesh is also among the top four countries in terms of giving asylum to stateless people.There are 3,579,500 such people in Turkey, 1,419,600 in Pakistan,979,400 in Iran and 854,800 (except non-registered ones) in Bangladesh.
In addition to registered refugees, Bangladesh hosts 1.0 million persons in irregular status, according to the report. It added, “The large stateless population in Bangladesh was predominantly made up of stateless refugees from Myanmar.”
Various countries and global reports have lauded Bangladesh for its generous hosting of the Rohingya people.
Dwelling on migrant workers’ issues,, the UN report appreciated Bangladeshfor developing an e-system of recognition of prior learning for migrant workers to assess skill recognition in destination and origin countries.
The regional report, however, regretted that migrants are often excluded from social protection systems in both origin and destination countries.
“Detention is a frequent response to irregular migration in Asia and the Pacific, and in many cases is de facto and open-ended, constituting arbitrary detention,,” the report said.
It further pointed out that women migrants, especially domestic workers, are particularly at risk of discrimination, violence, abuse and exploitation. “Recruitment process malpractices, such as excessive fees, erode the benefits of migration for migrant workers and their families,” the report suggested.
It underlined the importance of improving border governance and border management to achieve safe, orderly and regular migration.
