Safer migration for women in Bangladesh

Ismat Ara from Rongpur, Bangladesh is only 23 years old but she has already experienced far more than her young age. Her traumatic experience as a migrant worker has caused great financial loss to her family.

Today, Ismat works as a domestic help in Dhaka, trying to pay off the debt she has incurred. Through support from UN Women and its civil society partner OKUP, Ismat is working towards rebuilding her life.

To ensure that other women don’t go through Ismat’s fate, UN Women helped the Government of Bangladesh in 2010 to establish its first resource centre so women migrants could easily obtain correct information.

Workshops and radio broadcasts have made women more aware of their rights. A 26-episode programme in local dialects was broadcast on national radio to inform potential women migrant workers of the safest ways to migrate abroad to work. After receiving an overwhelming audience response from women migrant who called in with queries, the programme, that was produced and broadcast by UN Women, is now being replicated for seven other local stations across the country.

Government officials, including those in embassies in countries receiving migrants, have learnt to better assist women migrants who encounter difficulties. For women who must return to Bangladesh, the Government is working on a policy on rehabilitation in close partnership with UN Women and women’s rights advocates.

Ismat’s story

Ismat could not sustain her family and three children through agricultural work, so she decided to go abroad as a domestic worker.

After she sold her land to generate Taka 70,000 to travel to Dubai, she realized that the middleman had duped her. She, along with 10 other women, stood at Dubai airport, stranded for days. Helpless and desperate, they took up a man’s offer of work, only to be locked in a house for 5 days without any food or water. After protesting, she was sent back to Dhaka without her papers.