They leave with hope, return with scars

When Liza Akter left for Saudi Arabia two years ago, she hoped the job would help secure a better future for her two children.

The woman from Patuakhali already had a difficult life. She lost her parents at a young age, and later her husband abandoned her. Working abroad seemed like her only option.

But the dream quickly turned into a nightmare.

Liza says she was sold between four households and subjected to severe abuse and sexual violence. On February 9 this year, she returned to Bangladesh when she was six months pregnant.

Airport authorities later referred her to a migration support programme run by BRAC. She is now uncertain about how she will rebuild her life.

Her experience is not unique.

Rizia Begum from Barlekha in Moulvibazar went to the Middle Eastern country six years back in the hope of better supporting her family. She was a domestic help.

She was subjected to long working hours, insufficient food, and repeated abuse. Eventually, she fell ill and lost contact with her family.

For nearly five years, her relatives believed that she died.

In February this year, she was found at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in a mentally unstable condition. With assistance from BRAC’s Migration Welfare Centre and the Police Bureau of Investigation, her identity was confirmed and she was reunited with her family after 13 days.

She is now undergoing treatment for her mental health.

Stories like those of Liza and Rizia highlight the darker reality behind Bangladesh’s growing female labour migration.

Over the past decade, the number of Bangladeshi women migrating for work has increased significantly.

According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training, more than one million Bangladeshi women are currently working abroad.

However, there is no official record of how many have returned after facing difficulties.

Data from BRAC’s migration programme suggests that at least 70,000 women have returned to Bangladesh over the last seven years, many of them reporting various forms of abuse.

In addition, according to the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board, the bodies of 799 female migrant workers have been brought back home over the past eight years.

Most death certificates mention suicide as the cause. However, many families suspect abuse or foul play.

In several cases, relatives say they noticed marks of physical violence on the bodies.

According to the home ministry, more than 6,000 women became victims of human trafficking between 2012 and 2025.

These realities come into focus as the world marks International Women’s Day today under the theme “For all women and girls: rights, equality, and empowerment.”

Advocates say the rights and safety of women working abroad must also be part of that conversation.

SAUDI ARABIA

Bangladesh began sending female migrant workers abroad in 1991, although only a few thousand left each year initially. The numbers began increasing after 2004 and crossed 50,000 annually in 2013.

A major turning point came in 2015 when Bangladesh signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to send female domestic helps.

Since then, the number of women leaving for work abroad often exceeded 100,000 annually, except during the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than half a million Bangladeshi women have travelled to Saudi Arabia in the past decade alone.

While many send remittances home and improve their families’ economic condition, thousands have returned with traumatic experiences.

There is no comprehensive national database on returning female migrant workers. However, available records indicate that tens of thousands have come back over the years.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 alone, over 49,000 women came back home.

Airport records show thousands more returned as deportees or detainees in subsequent years.

Between 2022 and 2025, over 15,000 women returned from Saudi Arabia alone, according to the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board.

ABUSE

Many returning domestic workers say they experienced physical, mental, and sexual abuse while working abroad.

Others report not receiving regular salaries, being forced to work extra hours or being denied adequate food.

BRAC says it has provided services to at least 121 women who returned with severe mental health issues.

Some accounts are particularly harrowing.

A woman from Kurigram said she became pregnant after being raped by her employer in Saudi Arabia. She eventually escaped and sought shelter at the Bangladeshi embassy in Riyadh before returning home.

A worker from Rangpur said she was repeatedly abused by people visiting the household where she worked. She also alleged that her employer set her on fire when she protested the abuse.

A Jashore woman said her employer, his son, and his son’s friends sexually assaulted her.

Others suffered extreme violence.

One worker from Manikganj said she jumped from the roof of a four-storey building in an attempt to escape abuse and later ended up in intensive care.

TRAFFICKING

Some women also fell victims to trafficking networks.

Dilruba Akter was promised a domestic job in the United Arab Emirates. But she was confined in a club and forced into sex work for eight months without pay.

Paheli Akter from Noakhali was told that she would work at a makeover salon in Dubai. After arriving, her passport and phone were confiscated and she was forced to work in a nightclub.

Eti Akter from Gazipur travelled to Serbia. She was subjected to abuse for four months in a house before being rescued by a local NGO.

The Daily Star refrains from disclosing all the victims’ actual names mentioned in the report to protect their identities.

PROTECTION

Migration experts say the true scale of abuse is likely much higher because many victims remain silent out of fear or social stigma.

Shariful Hasan, associate director of BRAC’s migration and youth programme, told The Daily Star that the problems faced by migrant women generally fall into three categories.

The first relates to working conditions, including unpaid wages and excessive workloads.

The second involves physical abuse when employers believe workers are not performing adequately.

The third is sexual violence.

“The level of abuse some women face is so horrific that it cannot be described in words,” he said.

Shariful said Bangladesh needs stronger systems to protect migrant workers and recommended better training before departure, ensuring access to mobile phones and regular communication with families, and stronger support from embassies when workers face abuse.

He added that Bangladesh should expand safer employment opportunities for women abroad instead of sending most of them as domestic helps.