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Article

21 May 2020

Author:
Annie Banerji, Jise Devasia & Gopal Sharma, Thomson Reuters Foundation

South Asia: Repatriation of migrant workers an economic & public health challenge, warn labour experts

"South Asia scrambles to bring home crisis-hit migrant workers," 19 May 2020

South Asian nations are scrambling to repatriate hundreds of thousands of migrants stuck abroad without work due to the coronavirus crisis - a huge challenge that risks sparking social unrest and spreading COVID-19...

40 million South Asians work overseas, mainly in the oil-rich Gulf, sending vital remittances back home... economic fallout from the pandemic means many could be jobless for a long time, putting pressure on their home countries to step in...

[who] are rushing to establish quarantine centres and allocate emergency funds for the homecomers...

Receiving so many of them at once threatens to overwhelm fragile public health systems and a dwindling jobs market in the region.