THE mental health crisis of migrant workers is a dismal story that often remains little talked about although the impact is severe. Wage Earners’ Welfare Board statistics show that more than 20,000 Bangladeshis have died overseas over five years. A staggering 31 per cent of the deaths are classified as ‘abnormal,’ an estimated 700 cases of which are suicide. The number of such deaths attributable to mental crises and suicides is likely to be much higher, as the country accepts the bodies without scrutiny or independent post-mortem examinations on repatriated remains. Besides, many migrant workers, including females, return home carrying unbearable psychological wounds. The non-governmental organisation BRAC alone has received 150 deported migrant workers with acute mental health disorders in five years and its counsellors have supported more than 15,000 migrants experiencing mental distress. Experts say that migrants are especially vulnerable to mental crises and feel distressed from the very beginning of the migration process. The distress begins from the moment a would-be migrant takes out high-interest loans to pay exorbitant migration fees and it only compounds abroad with low wages, unpaid wages, abusive employers, punishing work hours, poor living conditions and loneliness.
The mental health crisis is especially prominent for female workers, who usually remain trapped inside a house, enduring punishing work hours and abuse. A 2021 Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies survey showed that at least 38 per cent of female migrant workers were physically abused and 7 per cent sexually abused in destination countries. The study also said that more than 29 per cent of the female migrants surveyed claimed that they were mentally tortured while 52 per cent were victims of forced labour abroad. Despite such a harrowing scale of crisis, mental health support has been completely ignored, with no support system in destination countries. While prospective migrants are briefed on mental health challenges in destination countries, labour wings at Bangladesh missions are often under-resourced, with no counsellors to help the migrants in need. Employers or destination countries also lack any mental health support mechanism. The Bangladesh government has counselling services, very inadequate though, inside Bangladesh, but the services reach migrants only after the damage is done. Addressing the mental health crisis, the mistreatment and the abandonment that migrant workers, whose remittances remain one of the mainstays of the economy, face in destination countries requires sustained intervention.
The government should, therefore, have a well-designed mechanism to support migrant workers. Labour wings at Bangladesh missions in destination countries need to be well equipped to help migrants in need of mental health support. The authorities should also arrange pre-departure training to give migrants realistic expectations, coping strategies and clear information on where to seek help abroad. The authorities should also press destination countries to ensure a safe working environment, community space and mandatory psychosocial services.
