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.