World Migration Report: Bangladesh 6th biggest sender in 2020

With 7.40 million migrants living abroad, Bangladesh was the sixth largest migrant-sending country globally in 2020, says the latest report of International Organisation for Migration.

Also, Bangladesh ranked eighth largest remittance-receiving country globally last year with receiving $21.75 billion, says the World Migration Report-2022.

The IOM launched the flagship report globally on Wednesday, while the Bangladesh chapter of the UN migration agency shared it with media yesterday.

"…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 in a statement sent along with the report.

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 percent 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, says the statement.

"We are witnessing a paradox not seen before in human history," said IOM's Director General Antonio Vitorino.

"While billions of people have been effectively grounded by Covid-19, tens of millions of displacement events have forced many others from their homes," he said.

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 $83.15 billion in 2020.

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