Women migrant workers need rehab help back home | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
July 10, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2025
Women migrant workers need rehab help back home

Migration

Tawsia Tajmim
23 December, 2021, 11:00 am
Last modified: 23 December, 2021, 11:05 am

Related News

  • Former housemaid sues Pori Moni over alleged assault
  • Pori Moni accused of beating housemaid, GD filed
  • Violence against housemaids not to be tolerated: NHRC chairman
  • Mystery shrouds death of BCB director’s housemaid
  • Housemaid tortured and locked in bathroom for days

Women migrant workers need rehab help back home

Tawsia Tajmim
23 December, 2021, 11:00 am
Last modified: 23 December, 2021, 11:05 am
Photo/Courtesy
Photo/Courtesy

Sonia Akhter, 26, a housewife from Jhalakati, went to Saudi Arabia in September this year to work as a housemaid. In the house assigned by the agency, she was not given enough food and forced to do the household work of others which she was not supposed to do. She was forced to work till midnight without a break, and was subjected to various kinds of torture, including physical.

In search of better working conditions, Sonia changed her job three times, without any solution to the problem.

She decided to return home as she was unable to bear the agony any more. But if she returns within two years, she would have to pay a significant amount in fines to the recruiting agency. Even then, she wanted to return home.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Sonia then called the Bangladeshi Ovibashi Mohila Sramik Association (BOMSA) hotline number to seek help. BOMSA contacted the agency and brought Sonia back home on 6 December without any penalties.

Sonia told the Business Standard that she had given up hope of returning home the day she was detained in a dark room.

"BOMSA has given me a new life," she said.

BOMSA works to protect the interests of Bangladeshi female migrant workers. Their work continues to shape the lives of many women who battle against extreme odds in foreign lands, offering both pre and post departure support and training.

In collaboration with BOMSA, a Manusher Jonno Foundation project, Women Voice Leadership, Bangladesh (WVLB), is strengthening the safety of women workers overseas with access to proper information on recruitment processes, potentials, and it provides necessary support to repatriated women workers and their family members.

The support includes enhancement of efficiencies and skills, advocacy for improvement of government and non-government services, and women-friendly policy formulation.

Lily Jahan, BOMSA chairman told TBS, most women migrant workers are often abused because they are domestic workers. If we receive any complaints from female migrant workers of any district, we send it to the concerned agency or if necessary to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).

"Most returnees say they have endured physical and mental torture, faced shortage of food and were often sexually abused by their employers or family members," she added.

"We give the BOMSA hotline number to the women workers before going abroad. When a migrant worker returns, sometimes their families do not want to take them back," Lily Jahan said.

"Then we put them in follow-up. We also work to bring back the bodies of deceased women workers and collect their arrears and compensation," she said.

BOMSA builds the confidence of potential migrant workers so they can cope with foreign environments. The organisation also intervenes in problematic repatriation of women workers, and afterwards, provides assistance to them to access loans from the Probashikallyan Bank.

Golap Banu (38) worked as a housemaid in Dubai and Saudi Arabia for nine years but was not able to save a penny. After working in Qatar for two years, she saved some money with which she bought five decimal of land.

Golap Banu has started a poultry farm at home, on a loan of Tk2 lakh from Probashikallyan Bank with support from BOMSA and some of the money she saved. Now she is a self-sufficient woman and no longer wants to go abroad.

BOMSA helps women workers to keep money in the bank to secure their future after returning to the country by facilitating easy loans for them from banks.

The government does not provide services to expatriate workers at the union or upazila level. BOMSA works in eight districts of the country, with 18 community based organizations providing services at the grassroots level, BOMSA sources said.

BOMSA, founded and operated by women migrant workers who have returned from abroad, has been working with internal and external women migrants to ensure protection of migrants' rights since 1998. At that time it was the only voice for female migrants in Bangladesh. 

"We work to build the confidence of expatriate workers. We suggest they open two bank accounts-- one for themselves and the other for the family. We put pressure on national and international bodies to ensure the rights of women migrant workers," BOMSA Director Farida Yesmin told TBS.

Sheikh Rumana, General Secretary of BOMSA told TBS that women migrant workers need to be aware. They should not go abroad through brokers. Many workers go abroad through this process ending up in jails. The Embassy should help them, she suggested.

Overseas employment of women workers started in 1991. Before Covid-19, on average, more than one lakh women were employed each year from 2015 till 2019, according to BMET.

Since 1991, one million women migrant workers, 98% of them domestic workers, have left Bangladesh for overseas destinations, according to BMET. The remaining 2% of women migrant workers are mostly employed in apparel factories abroad.

Bangladesh / Top News

Women Migrant Workers / housemaid

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • In terms of stream of education, girls maintained their excellence as well. Photo: TBS
    Lowest SSC pass rate in 17 years as over 6 lakh students fail
  • BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir while speaking at a discussion at National Press Club on 10 July 2025. Photo: TBS
    'Backbone of economy will break': Fakhrul says govt should've worked seriously with more qualified people on US tariffs
  • S Alam Group Chairman Mohammed Saiful Alam. Photo: Collected
    Court freezes foreign investments of S Alam Group chairman, family in Singapore

MOST VIEWED

  • Graphics: TBS
    BB raises startup fund limit, drops upper age barrier
  • Workers pack undergarments at the packing section of a garment factory in Ashulia, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Fatima Tuj Johora
    After US tariffs, jobs hang by a thread in Bangladesh's garments sector
  • Global Islami Bank rectifies 2023 figures, reports Tk2,259cr loss instead of Tk128cr profit
    Global Islami Bank rectifies 2023 figures, reports Tk2,259cr loss instead of Tk128cr profit
  • Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur. TBS Sketch
    Audit reports of most banks contain cooked up data: BB governor
  • File photo of containers at Chattogram port/TBS
    US buyers push Bangladeshi exporters to share extra tariff costs
  • CA orders law enforcers to complete all election preparations by December
    CA orders law enforcers to complete all election preparations by December

Related News

  • Former housemaid sues Pori Moni over alleged assault
  • Pori Moni accused of beating housemaid, GD filed
  • Violence against housemaids not to be tolerated: NHRC chairman
  • Mystery shrouds death of BCB director’s housemaid
  • Housemaid tortured and locked in bathroom for days

Features

Illustration: TBS

Behind closed doors: Why women in Bangladesh stay in abusive marriages

1h | Panorama
Purbachl’s 144-acre Sal forest is an essential part of the area’s biodiversity. Within it, 128 species of plants and 74 species of animals — many of them endangered- have been identified. Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain/TBS

A forest saved: Inside the restoration of Purbachal's last Sal grove

1h | Panorama
Women are forced to fish in saline waters every day, risking their health to provide for their families. Photo: TBS

How Mongla’s women are bearing the brunt of rising salinity

23h | Panorama
Dr Mostafa Abid Khan. Sketch: TBS

Actual impact will depend on how US retailers respond: Mostafa Abid Khan

2d | Economy

More Videos from TBS

SSC and equivalent results released: Pass rate 68.45%, GPA drops by 5

SSC and equivalent results released: Pass rate 68.45%, GPA drops by 5

13m | TBS Today
Islami bank aims to increase deposits to Tk 2 lakh crore by 2025

Islami bank aims to increase deposits to Tk 2 lakh crore by 2025

2h | TBS Programs
The two countries still face major challenges and mutual suspicions

The two countries still face major challenges and mutual suspicions

1h | Others
RMG sector braces for impact as US tariffs hit: Fakhrul

RMG sector braces for impact as US tariffs hit: Fakhrul

2h | TBS Today
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net