Employment opportunity for returning migrants improved after lockdown: IOM

After the government lifted the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, more returning migrants -- international and local -- were able to find jobs in recent months, according to a report of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The key findings indicate that reports of their health and psychosocial challenges declined and food security improved after the lockdown was lifted.

However, household debt increased, and migrant households were adopting negative coping measures, like reducing health expenditure and borrowing money, to pay back loans.

Findings of the second data collection round have been presented in the report "Rapid Assessment Round 2: Needs and Vulnerabilities of Internal and International Return Migrants in Bangladesh".

In a statement issued today, IOM Bangladesh said the latest round of data collection was completed in August and September 2020, in 12 high return-migration districts in Bangladesh.

A total of 1,584 respondents took part, including 875 international return migrants and 709 internal return migrants.

In June 2020, IOM interviewed 2,765 internal and international migrant workers who had returned to Bangladesh and then re-interviewed 1,584 of the respondents three months later.

The findings indicate that there was a 20 percent increase of international returnees who reported that they were facing challenges.

The most prevalent primary challenges reported were difficulty in finding a job (47 percent), financial problems (29 percent), and repayment of debt (21 percent).

Among the respondents available for the round two surveys, the unemployment rate dropped to 64 percent. Among them, the unemployment rate was 74 percent from May to June 2020.

The decline in unemployment may be attributed, at least partially, to the easing of lockdown measures at the end of May and the lifting of general "business curfews" and other restrictions at the beginning of September. Nevertheless, unemployment among respondents remained high, IOM said.

In the face of financial problems, returnees coped by borrowing money or taking out additional loans (50 percent of international return migrants and 71 percent of internal migrants).

More than half of respondents who returned from abroad reported debts of over Tk 100,000 while 28 percent reported debts of over Tk 200,000. A total of 58 percent of international returnees and 53 percent of internal returnees indicated that their debts had increased from June to September 2020.

Giorgi Gigauri, chief of Mission of IOM in Bangladesh, said, "We are living through an unprecedented crisis, and to recover better and faster, we need research to better understand how communities coped with unemployment and lockdowns and what their migration aspirations are."

"The information from the research will help us strengthen support systems to provide migrant workers protection against future outbreaks of international concern. The findings of our study support global indications that the Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted people on the move," he said.