More than one lakh Bangladeshi workers are stranded due to coronavirus outbreak and waiting to leave the country, said Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) on Wednesday.

Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury, Secretary General of Baira, came up with the remarks while attending a virtual discussion with journalists.
Of the workers, 95 percent are waiting to leave for Eastern countries and 85 percent for Saudi Arabia, said Shamim.

Among the one lakh migrant workers, some had visas and some secured tickets but they failed to depart due to the coronavirus outbreak, he said.

"Recruiting Agencies have spent Tk 16 crore for these workers' visas and tickets. We have sought government stimulus in this regard," he added.

More than 32,000 officials and staff of 1,600 recruiting agencies have been left jobless, he said adding that in current situation it has become hardly possible to bear their salaries and allowances.

Besides, thousands of Bangladeshi migrant workers are passing days in deep crisis abroad as they are facing forced repatriation, loss of jobs, limited access to foods and healthcare system amid the coronavirus pandemic across the globe.

Migrant rights activists said that Bangladesh government was yet to take pragmatic steps to help the country's millions of migrant workers staying in distress at destination countries.

They  said that though about 2 crore Bangladeshi migrants, with documented and undocumented status, were passing their days in severe crisis of food abroad but the government allocated Tk 8 crore as humanitarian support which was very little amount for them.

According to estimates of government officials,  recruiting agencies and migration experts, already several lakh of Bangladeshi migrants became jobless in Middle East, Europe and East Asian countries due to the spread of Covid-19.

"Labour migration was passing through a grave crisis for the corona virus pandemic and the country's recruiting agencies have already incurred losses of over Tk 5,000 crore," Tipu Sultan, a manpower recurring agent, told The New Nation.

'In the last three months, job visas of over 1.5 lakh workers ,who were ready to fly, have been cancelled and their migration became uncertain due to persistent lockdown and economic recession in the destination countries,' he said.