Bangladesh sixth biggest migrant sender in 2020

Dhaka: Bangladesh became the sixth largest migrant-sending country worldwide in 2020 with 7.40 million migrants living abroad, says the latest report of International Organisation for Migration.

Also, Bangladesh ranked eighth largest remittance-receiving country globally in 2020 with receiving USD 21.75 billion, says the World Migration Report-2022.

The IOM launched the flagship report globally on December 1, while the Bangladesh Chapter of the UN migration agency shared it with media on December 2.

"…international migration has been a critical part of the development story of Bangladesh, with migrants moving to pursue opportunities for economic and social, and then helping raise the living standards in the home," said IOM Bangladesh's Officer-in-Charge Fathima Nusrath Ghazzali.

The report says the number of Bangladeshi migrants between January and May 2020 dropped to 181,200 amid the pandemic compared with 302,400 for the same period in 2019.

On the other hand, before borders were closed in Bangladesh in March 2020, approximately 400,000 workers returned, mostly due to the pandemic. A July 2020 report found 70 per cent of such returnees were unemployed.

The IOM report says the number of international migrants has grown from 84 million globally in 1970 to 281 million in 2020.

It says with nearly 18 million people living abroad, India had the largest migrant population globally in 2020. Mexico was the second largest origin country with around 11 million migrants.

The Russian Federation (10.8 million), China (10 million), and Syrian Arab Republic (over 8 million, mainly refugees) made the global top five.

The report reveals a dramatic increase in internal displacement due to disaster, conflict, and violence at a time when global mobility ground to a halt due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

The number of air passengers globally dropped 60 percent in 2020 to 1.8 billion (down from 4.5 billion in 2019) while at the same time internal displacement due to disaster, conflict and violence rose to 40.5 million (up from 31.5 million in 2019).

In terms of receiving remittance, India topped the list with USD 83.15 billion in 2020.

China (USD 59.51 billion), Mexico (USD 42.88 billion), the Philippines (USD 34.91 billion), Egypt (USD 29.60 billion), Pakistan (USD 26.11 billion), and France (USD 24.48 billion) were above Bangladesh in terms of receiving remittance.