Soon after the outbreak of COVID-19, countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines have experienced the return of large number of migrant workers. Under duress from the countries of destination, the countries of origin reluctantly became party to repatriation (in effect deportation) procedures conducted hastily without any redress mechanism. Such procedures have been put in place when courts and other dispute settlement mechanisms in the countries of destination remained closed. Without ensuring due diligence to protect and fulfill the human rights and labour rights of repatriated migrant workers, states became complicit in overseeing procedures where tens of thousands of workers were returned without getting their earned wages and not securing justice. Those workers were not provided with any document (contract, pay slip, attendance roll and the like) by their employers through which in future they can lodge legitimate claims for compensation for the deprivation of entitlements. A significant proportion of those workers faced situations of debt bondage as they had to return empty handed. While the workers endured major hardship without any possibility of redress, unplanned facilitation of ‘repatriation’ freed the employers from any accountability.