Bangladeshi workers are facing mounting difficulties as flights to Saudi Arabia are cancelled or suspended one after another following the attack on an airport in Riyadh. Workers who returned home on leave are unable to resume their jobs. Delays to their journeys have also created uncertainty over the validity of their visas and the security of their employment.
Bangladesh’s overseas employment market depends largely on the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia being its largest destination. As several other major labour markets have closed or contracted, the country’s dependence on Saudi Arabia has grown. However, the number of workers travelling to Saudi Arabia has been declining since the beginning of this year.
The attack and disruption to air travel have now dealt a fresh blow to overseas employment from Bangladesh. Government agencies, recruiting agencies and people involved in the migration sector have stressed the need for a coordinated action plan to address the crisis.
According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), 853,066 people had obtained clearance to travel abroad for work by 12 October last year.
By the same date this year, the figure had fallen to 580,632, a decline of about 32 per cent. The number of workers cleared to travel to Saudi Arabia alone dropped from 572,054 to 311,567, a fall of nearly 46 per cent.
Between 1:00 pm and 4:30 pm on Monday, Prothom Alo spoke to more than 15 passengers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Most of those travelling to Saudi Arabia had come to the airport to find out whether their flights had been cancelled. Others were waiting to see if they could reach their destinations on alternative flights.
At around 3:30 pm, a worker named Moslem Talukdar told Prothom Alo that he was due to travel to Saudi Arabia for the first time to take up a job at a shop in Riyadh. His flight had been scheduled for noon on Monday, and he had arrived at the airport in the morning. The flight was cancelled, and he was looking for a way to travel on another flight. If he could find no alternative, he would have to return home.
In a press release issued late on Monday night, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) said restrictions were in place at various airports in Saudi Arabia. These had directly affected 61 flights operated by different airlines on direct and transit routes connecting Bangladesh with the country. Some of the flights had been cancelled and others suspended. A total of 8,381 passengers scheduled to travel from Dhaka to various destinations in Saudi Arabia had been affected.
Amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport came under attack for the fourth time in five days on Sunday. The deadliest attack in this period occurred on Saturday, killing 13 people, including two Bangladeshis. One Bangladeshi injured in the attack remains in critical condition. Flights from Dhaka to Riyadh began to be cancelled in the aftermath.
Members of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) and BMET sources say an average of 1,200 new workers travelled to Saudi Arabia each day this year.
In addition, between 600 and 700 workers returning from leave went back to the country daily. On that basis, around 5,500 workers are likely to have been stranded by flight disruptions over the past three days. The number will continue to rise if flights remain suspended.
Overseas employment under threat
Bangladesh began sending workers abroad in 1976, but the numbers started to rise significantly in the 1990s. Between 2021 and 2025, the average annual number of workers sent overseas exceeded one million. The highest number in the country’s history travelled abroad in 2023, when more than 1.3 million workers left for jobs overseas. Despite the large numbers, the queue of young people hoping to work abroad has never grown shorter.
The problem is that the overseas labour market is concentrated in a handful of countries. An analysis of data from the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment shows that Bangladesh sent workers to 203 countries over the 15 years from January 2011 to December 2025. More than 11 million workers went abroad during that period. Nearly 79 per cent went to just five countries, while 94 per cent went to 10 countries.
The leading destinations for Bangladeshi workers include Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and the Maldives.
All are in Asia, and seven are in the Middle East. Over the past 15 years, Bangladesh sent fewer than 100 workers each to 98 countries. Dependence on a labour market concentrated in a limited number of destinations has now created a difficult situation.
Ali Haider Chowdhury, a former secretary-general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), told Prothom Alo that overseas employment had come to depend on a single labour market, which had now stagnated.
This was the consequence of failing to develop alternative markets, he said. Flight cancellations were preventing both new recruits and existing workers from returning to their jobs. Many could see their visas expire.
During the Kuwait War and the Covid-19 pandemic, visas for stranded workers had been renewed. The government could hold discussions with Saudi Arabia to seek a similar arrangement this time, he added.
In recent years, employment growth has been concentrated in Saudi Arabia. More than 625,000 Bangladeshis travelled there for work in 2024. The figure rose to over 755,000 last year. However, only around 309,000 workers went to the country in the first nine months of this year, indicating a decline.
BMET data show that more than 1.132 million workers went abroad in total last year. Overseas employment in Saudi Arabia has been declining since the war began this year. During the first 12 days of October last year, 14,174 people obtained BMET clearance to travel to various countries.
This year, the figure for the same period was 11,122. Of those cleared to travel to Saudi Arabia, 3,971 received clearance during the first 12 days of October last year, compared with just 1,850 this year.
State Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Md Nurul Haque told Prothom Alo that the war in the Middle East had dealt a certain blow to overseas employment. Workers had been sent to new destinations, albeit on a limited scale. Saudi Arabia had now created fresh concerns. As a result, the government might fail to meet its target of sending 1.5 million workers abroad in its first year in office.
However, work to develop alternative labour markets was continuing, he said. The government would hold talks at the official level to arrange travel for those stranded. At the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East, visa validity had also been extended automatically, he noted.
Flights cancelled in advance
According to CAAB, 12 of the 61 affected flights were direct services to and from Saudi Arabia, while the remaining 39 were transit flights. Among the direct services affected were nine operated by Biman Bangladesh Airlines, two by US-Bangla Airlines, four by Saudia and seven by Riyadh Air.
Following the explosion at Riyadh’s international airport, restrictions were imposed at airports across Saudi Arabia. As of 3:00am on Tuesday, the country had announced that the airport would remain closed until then. Saudi authorities were expected to issue a fresh decision afterwards.
In separate press releases, Biman Bangladesh Airlines and US-Bangla Airlines said all US-Bangla flights on the Dhaka–Riyadh–Dhaka route had been cancelled through 21 October because Riyadh airport was closed. Biman had suspended all flights from Dhaka to Riyadh through 17 October. Both airlines said they would notify affected passengers once revised schedules had been determined.
Other airlines had not yet announced advance cancellations. However, they were providing daily updates on the status of their flights in light of the evolving situation.
Abul Hossain was scheduled to travel to Dammam, Saudi Arabia, on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight at 2:00pm on Monday. He arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at around 10:00am after travelling from Senbagh in Noakhali to catch the flight. He told Prothom Alo that he had been working in Saudi Arabia as a tiling mason for six years.
He had bought his return ticket three months earlier to resume work after leave. The cancellation meant he could not return to his job on time. If he could not travel, it would be difficult to keep his job, he said, adding that his family’s future would be thrown into uncertainty.
Alongside the cancellation of flights from Dhaka to Riyadh, some flights to Jeddah were also cancelled from Monday, according to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport authorities. The airport’s flight information display showed that a Flynas flight scheduled to depart for Jeddah at 5:30pm had been cancelled.
Sources at the Bangladesh embassy in Saudi Arabia said that disruption to air travel following the attack had left around 500 Bangladeshi passengers stranded at Riyadh airport. They included people who had travelled from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia, Umrah pilgrims and passengers waiting to travel to domestic and international destinations from Riyadh.
With the assistance of airport authorities, Saudi immigration officials and the airlines concerned, the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh arranged accommodation, food and alternative travel for the stranded passengers.
Arrangements were made for around 400 Bangladeshi passengers to return home via King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. Meanwhile, two Bangladeshi employees of Saudia who were travelling from Riyadh to Bahrain were assisted in reaching Bahrain by land through the border crossing at Al Khobar.
Migrant workers becoming casualties of war
According to the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board, the bodies of 3,651 expatriate Bangladeshis were brought home in 2019. The figure fell to 3,140 in 2020. In the nine months from January to 30 September this year—a period of 273 days—the bodies of 4,064 expatriates were brought back to Bangladesh. This amounts to an average of more than 14 bodies a day. Saudi Arabia accounts for the highest number of deaths among Bangladeshi workers abroad.
Sources at the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment said that, in addition to deaths caused by various accidents, Bangladeshi workers were now also dying in the war. Since the conflict in the Middle East began this year, 14 Bangladeshis had been killed in attacks as of Monday.
Eight of them were registered as Bangladeshi workers. The latest attack on Saturday killed two Bangladeshis, one of whom was a migrant worker. Another 27 Bangladeshis were injured in the same attack.
In its latest report, sent on Monday, the labour welfare wing of the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh said that Saffat Rahman, who is from Naogaon, was in critical condition following the attack. He had travelled to Saudi Arabia on an Umrah visa. Saffat and 14 other injured Bangladeshis were receiving treatment in hospital. The remaining 12 had been discharged after receiving initial treatment. Of the 27 Bangladeshis injured, 11 were working in Saudi Arabia and 16 had travelled there on Umrah visas.
Shariful Hasan, head of BRAC’s migration programme, told Prothom Alo that overseas employment had depended on the Middle East—and Saudi Arabia in particular—for many years. The number of workers being sent abroad had been declining since the war began.
Workers were unable to travel, while those already in Saudi Arabia were also being killed or injured. The Middle East had also been considered a safe destination for foreign investment, but that was now under threat as well. As a result, demand for workers would decline, potentially placing Bangladesh in serious difficulty. Employment opportunities for the unemployed would shrink and remittance inflows would continue to fall, he warned.
He said the government should urgently hold talks with Saudi Arabia, one of the countries on which Bangladesh’s economy heavily relies. A coordinated action plan was essential to reduce the risks.