The number of bodies of Bangladeshi migrants arriving from abroad rose to a record high in 2024, with a total of 4,813 corpses received by the authorities last year.

The figure is 261 more than the 4,552 corpses received in 2023, according to statistics from the Wage Earners' Welfare Board.

The number has increased every year since 2021, when 3,818 corpses were received. In 2022, WEWB received 3,904 such bodies.

The latest statistics was published on January 14 on the WEWB website.

However, accurate reasons behind their deaths, many of whom die at a young age, remain unexplained.

The statistics shows that from 1993 until last year, WEWB received 56,769 dead bodies of migrants.

Jasiya Khatoon, director of Welfare Association for the Rights of Bangladeshi Emigrants (WARBE) Development Foundation, said there could be multiple reasons behind the untimely deaths of many Bangladeshi migrant workers abroad.

There are issues related to workplace safety and substandard accommodation. Moreover, they remain under extensive pressure to regain the money they invested as migration costs. So they work for additional hours and do not consume enough food, she told this newspaper over the phone.

"Heart attack is commonly mentioned [in the death certificates issued by the receiving countries] as a cause of death. But there should be further medical examination to know the cause of death accurately," she added.

Jasiya suggested the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should work together to enhance monitoring on migrant workers to prevent their untimely deaths.

Bangladeshi missions abroad also have a big role to play to this end, she added.

WEWB maintains the statistics of migrant deaths as it issues a cheque for Tk 35,000 against each dead body as burial and transportation costs as part of its welfare activities.

Besides, it gives Tk 3 lakh against each death as compensation.

The WEWB statistics, however, did not segregate how many dead bodies arrived from which countries last year.

Between July 2016 and June 2022, according to WEWB annual reports, Bangladesh received 17,871 dead bodies, 67.4 percent of which arrived from the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.

Of the corpses, 5,666 arrived from Saudi Arabia followed by 1,913 from the UAE and 1,893 from Oman.

The six GCC countries together have hired 76.3 percent of Bangladesh's total 1.6 crore outbound workers between 1976 and 2023, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.

The 2022 report "The Deaths of Migrants in the Gulf" by the Vital Signs Partnership (VSP) highlights several risks faced by low-paid migrant workers in the Gulf. These include poor working conditions, exposure to heat and humidity, air pollution, and abusive treatment. Workers also face health risks such as psychosocial stress, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease.

However, the deaths of migrants in the Gulf region in many cases remain "effectively unexplained" even though corpses continue to pile up, it said.

An official of WEWB, wishing anonymity, said while they work to ensure welfare of migrant workers, they also make workers aware of health issues before their migration abroad.

One reason behind the rise in the number of dead bodies received could be that the outflow of migrant workers increased in recent years, the official added.