Unpaid wages, physical and sexual abuse, confinement and a growing number of deaths recorded as suicides or accidents have turned Saudi Arabia’s promise of overseas employment into a nightmare for many Bangladeshi women migrant workers.
Abused workers rarely see their employers held accountable, while families struggle to secure justice for those who die under suspicious circumstances. The Bangladesh government has also faced criticism for its muted response.
While the recent execution of two Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia over allegations of immoral acts inside a mosque has triggered anger in Bangladesh, it has also brought renewed attention to the hardships and abuse faced by Bangladeshi migrant workers in the kingdom.
Women have been migrating to Saudi Arabia as domestic workers for more than six years, alongside the much larger flow of male workers. Yet their experiences have often been far from the employment and earnings promised before departure.
Promised wages withheld, workers abused
For a housewife from Narayanganj, leaving her two children behind to work in Saudi Arabia was less a choice than a means of survival. Her husband had worked at a garment factory until before 2020, but after he lost his job, the family’s income nearly dried up.
A villager who introduced himself as a kafeel, or sponsor, offered to take her to Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker. She was told that she would work for a family for around six hours a day and earn between 1,000 and 1,500 Saudi riyals a month. The salary was equivalent to around Tk34,000 at the time and would be worth nearly Tk50,000 at current exchange rates.
She agreed.
But after arriving in Saudi Arabia in January 2021, she found that the reality bore little resemblance to the promises. I returned home in October, after just 10 months, because she was not paid regularly, let alone the promised salary.
She was confined to a room and given only one meal a day. Her employer frequently sought sexual relations with her. When she refused, he beat her on the back and waist, deliberately targeting areas that would not be visible to others. He also poured hot water on her body.
She had become so emaciated by the time she returned that her children burst into tears when they saw her. “I don’t need money anymore. I would rather beg in my own country than live without peace,” she told TIMES.
Hasina Islam, from Narail, went to Saudi Arabia in May 2022 after seeing an agency advertisement on Facebook. She signed a two-year contract that promised a monthly salary of 1,200 riyals, along with accommodation, food, and medical care.
Her brother Ratan told TIMES that he used to speak to her over video calls. During one conversation, she showed him bruises on her hands and legs.
Hasina said, “I received only 800 riyals instead of the promised 1,200, and had to hand over nearly half of that amount to my kafeel.”
According to Wage Earners’ Welfare Board, workers who leave their employers because of abuse but cannot immediately return home often have little choice but to seek new employment. However, if they find work elsewhere without the sponsor’s consent, the kafeel may file a case against them.
The problem extends beyond domestic workers. According to foreign ministry database figures up to September, at least 5,480 Bangladeshis were stranded in Jeddah alone. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed has separately said that around 7,500 Bangladeshis were being held in prisons across Saudi Arabia.
Outpass data from the Probashi Kallyan Desk show that 1,687 women migrant workers were sent back to Bangladesh between January and September this year. Of them, 979 were deported from Saudi Arabia, 227 from Jordan, 78 from the United Arab Emirates, 52 from India, and 48 from Malaysia.
Alarming number of deaths recorded as suicides
According to BRAC’s migration programme, suicide and accidents account for a significant proportion of the recorded deaths of women who travelled to Saudi Arabia on khaddama, or domestic worker visas and later returned home in coffins.
An analysis by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) found that 112 of the 486 women who returned dead between 2017 and October this year had suicide recorded as the cause of death.
As of 25 October this year, the bodies of 76 women migrant workers had been brought back to Bangladesh. Eleven of them were recorded as having died by suicide, including six who had worked in Saudi Arabia.
RMMRU’s study, titled “Death of Women Migrant Workers in Destination Countries,” found that between 2017 and 2022, 11 families sought fresh autopsies after refusing to accept claims that their relatives had died by suicide. The requests came from among 68 cases, but the families were told that further post-mortem examinations were not possible after the bodies had returned home.
During the same period, 69 per cent of the women’s death certificates listed natural causes. However, 48 per cent of their families did not believe those explanations.
Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of RMMRU, told TIMES that the reported suicide rate among women migrant workers was a serious indication of problems with workplace conditions and personal safety.
“The suicide rate in a general population is not more than 1 to 1.5 per cent. Among women migrant workers, such a high rate points to serious problems with working conditions and security. These issues need to be raised internationally to ensure accountability,” she said.
Several families have alleged that death certificates cited heart attacks or natural causes even when bodies bore cuts, bruises or other signs of abuse. But the need to bury the dead quickly for religious and family reasons often discourages relatives from pursuing legal procedures, leaving many deaths unexplained.
Only conviction overturned
On 24 March 2019, Bangladeshi domestic worker Abiron Begum was brutally tortured and killed at her employer’s residence in Riyadh. An investigation established that her employer, Ayesha al-Jizani, had deliberately and intentionally killed her.
A Riyadh court sentenced Ayesha to death on 14 February 2021. However, on 15 May 2023, Abiron’s family agreed to pardon her following requests from the convict’s family and the Saudi government. The death sentence was subsequently overturned in exchange for 4.88 million riyals in blood money.
Shariful Islam Hasan, associate director of BRAC’s Migration Programme and Youth Platform, told TIMES that they had not come across a single case in which an employer had ultimately been punished for abusing a Bangladeshi domestic worker. “As a result, Saudi employers believe they can do whatever they want with workers,” he said.
Calls for stronger protection
Tasneem Siddiqui said the existing administrative arrangements and the operational mechanisms of the ministries and the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) were not sufficient to ensure effective protection for women migrant workers.
She called for an institutional mechanism to maintain regular contact with them, with officials checking at least once a month on their working conditions, wages and safety.
She also proposed an informal welfare network under the supervision of the Bangladesh embassy, involving Bangladeshi professional families living in Saudi Arabia, university students and their family members.
Saudi Arabia allows workers to change their kafeel up to three times under specific procedures in cases of abuse or other valid reasons. However, the embassy often remains unaware of workers’ difficulties until it is too late to intervene, she said.
Golam Moshi, a former Bangladesh ambassador to Saudi Arabia, estimated that around 15 per cent of women migrant workers faced problems in the kingdom.
He said workers facing abuse or wishing to leave their employers could complain to the Saudi labour ministry and seek clearance to change jobs. The Bangladesh embassy also referred wage complaints to Saudi authorities and provided legal assistance in cases of physical or other abuse.
Moshi, who served as ambassador from July 2015 for five years, said the embassy sheltered around 500 women workers in Riyadh and 100 in Madinah during his tenure, providing food, medical care, legal assistance and arrangements for their return home.
However, he identified inadequate training and awareness before departure as a major problem, saying many women did not know how to seek help from Saudi authorities or the Bangladesh embassy. “Workers are not properly informed about their jobs, given adequate training and orientation, or made aware of emergency contacts before leaving Bangladesh,” he said.
