Flight disruptions, shrinking job prospects put migrant workers, families at risk
Published : 17 October 2026
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Updated : 17 October 2026, 02:48
Md Asaduz Zaman
Bangladesh’s struggle with poverty is making overseas jobs more important for millions of families, but turmoil in the Middle East is putting that escape route at risk.
For families that have borrowed heavily to send a member abroad, a lost job or delayed flight can quickly turn years of sacrifice into fresh debt.
Mohammad Rezaul Karim, 30, knows the risk all too well. He spent two years repaying the Tk 4.5 lakh he borrowed to secure a job in Saudi Arabia and had only recently begun to feel financially secure.
Now stranded in Bangladesh after his October 11 flight was cancelled, he fears having to borrow another Tk 4 lakh to Tk 5 lakh if he cannot return before his visa expires on November 5.
“Now, if this gets cancelled, I will have to borrow money again and go through the whole process all over again,” he told The Daily Star on Wednesday.
Rezaul, who works at a residential hotel in Dammam, has been asked to wait until October 18 but has yet to receive confirmation of a new flight.
The sole earner for his family in Satkhira, he supports his parents, daughter and younger brother. He had to drop out of a diploma course in electrical engineering after completing his Secondary School Certificate because his family could not afford his education.
“If we were not poor, why would we want to work abroad?” he said.
The World Bank estimates that the country’s poverty rate rose to 22.5 percent in 2026 from 18.7 percent in 2022, with around 21 lakh more people pushed into poverty in FY26. Another 6.2 crore remain vulnerable to falling into poverty after an economic shock.
Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh’s largest overseas labour market, is at the centre of the latest disruption. Attacks by Houthis and security restrictions at Saudi airports have disrupted flights, raising uncertainty.
Rezaul’s case is part of a wider vulnerability created by Bangladesh’s heavy dependence on overseas employment, particularly in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh’s largest overseas labour market, is at the centre of the latest disruption. Attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels and security restrictions at Saudi airports have disrupted flights, raising uncertainty for workers trying to enter the country and those already there.
As of October 14, restrictions had disrupted 100 flights and affected around 15,400 Bangladeshi passengers.
Shariful Hasan, associate director of BRAC’s Migration Programme and Youth Platform, said, “Missing flights for even a single day creates uncertainty for 1,000-1,500 people travelling to Saudi Arabia.”
BEYOND STRANDED PASSENGERS
Many Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia depend on daily or weekly work, and employment opportunities have declined amid the security concerns, said Shariful.
A total of 33,611 Bangladeshi workers have returned from Saudi Arabia since the beginning of this year, according to him.
Prof Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said the crisis was putting Bangladesh’s overseas labour market under three kinds of pressure.
These are: declining incomes for some workers already abroad, uncertainty for those unable to travel after taking loans and buying tickets, and fewer workers going abroad.
“If the crisis is not resolved soon, these three pressures will intensify further in the coming days,” Mustafizur said.
The economic condition of the affected families would certainly deteriorate, but further research would be required to determine whether they actually fall below the poverty line, he added.
Mustafa K Mujeri, executive director of the Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development, said many unskilled workers spend their first three to four years abroad repaying migration loans. Only after clearing those debts can they use their earnings to improve their families’ living standards.
“If these workers cannot return to their jobs abroad, or if their departure is delayed or they face other uncertainties, they may lose that opportunity,” he said.
Even if stranded workers eventually travel, their jobs may no longer be available if employers recruit replacements, Mujeri said.
Such disruptions could also slow remittance growth, which has supported Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves and external balance over the past one and a half to two years.
SHRINKING OPTIONS
Shariful said Bangladesh was becoming increasingly dependent on Saudi Arabia as recruitment from the United Arab Emirates had declined, while job markets in Oman and Bahrain had remained virtually closed to Bangladeshi workers for years.
“Job markets for migrant workers are closing one after another. This is really concerning,” he said.
The wider conflict also raises questions about the future of the Middle East as a destination for migrant workers, he said.
Greater caution among investors could affect construction, tourism and other sectors that employ migrants, making it important for Bangladesh to diversify its overseas labour markets.
Saudi Arabia hosts around 3.5 million Bangladeshis.
The kingdom accounted for $1.95 billion, or 19.2 percent, of Bangladesh’s total remittance inflows in the first three months of the current fiscal year, according to Bangladesh Bank data cited in recent reports.
Nearly half of Bangladesh’s annual remittances of more than $30 billion come from the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait accounted for 86 percent of Bangladeshi workers who secured overseas jobs in FY2024-25, according to the Bangladesh Economic Review 2025.
An Asian Development Bank study released in March warned that Bangladesh and other South Asian countries could see lower remittances from the Middle East as the conflict weakens labour demand and squeezes migrant incomes.
Some workers have managed to avoid the worst consequences, at least for now.
Ridoy Ahmed, a painter whose flight was cancelled a day earlier, flew to Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport on Wednesday evening, just two days before his visa expired.
“Otherwise, I don’t know how much longer I would have had to wait or what would have happened to my family and me,” he said by phone from the plane.
For families like Rezaul’s, however, the stakes are more immediate: years of borrowing, working, and repaying debt can be undone by a crisis thousands of kilometres away.