By Ashis Biswas
KOLKATA: Nearly 10,000 job seekers and unemployed youths, mostly from South Asian countries, were killed worldwide in various accidents and mishaps in 2025, as their quest for work/migration abroad ended in tragedy. In addition a large number of people were also reported missing.
International agencies and human rights organisations, expressing concern over the increasing death toll, among such people, have called on United Nations member countries to set up a separate authority asap to deal with the problem.
The magnitude of the phenomenon can be appreciated from a telling piece of statistics: since 2014, over 84,000 deaths among migrants have been recorded so far. Mostly illegal migrant victims tried to reach various countries in Europe or the US/Canada areas, travelling hundreds of miles over land and risking their lives to enter targeted countries, carried precariously in overloaded, derelict ships.
Only days ago in June this year, a major shipwreck occurred near the Greek coast, killing at least 82 people. From Pakistan around 350 people were being carried in an overloaded ship. Addressing a meeting of the 47 member UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Pak representative said the human cost of such accidents was unacceptable. Most attending countries agreed that existing gaps in meeting minimum security norms must be plugged more effectively asap, to prevent such mishaps.
Gambian authorities according to reports, strongly urged upon the UN to improve existing rescue mechanism and methods, to reduce casualties. Many migrants were using some African ports as their first meeting point, from where the rest of the journey continued. .
Such accidents not only took heavy toll of lives from developing countries, but also hit their relatives back home hard economically and emotionally. Very often, specific information regarding the fate of the victims and the circumstances of their demise did not reach the affected families. This created problems in securing compensations from insurance authorities or job recruiters in the targeted countries. The plight of the illegal migrants was especially hard, as their ‘private’ unofficial travel agents/sponsors often remained uncommunicative.
The official attitude of the ‘destination’ countries, too, was not always helpful. Feelings had hardened over the years in .most developed countries, as rightwing parties that strongly oppose migration from Africa or Asia, especially if illegal, have become stronger.
India as the world’s leading country in sending abroad job seeking migrants, accounts for a large part of the fatal toll. On average, 20 would be Indian migrants get killed daily in their search for better lives abroad. Between 2021 and 2025, according to official sources, nearly 38,000 Indians had died.
Smaller countries like Nepal and Bangladesh too, had their problems. The average daily death toll for aspiring Bangladeshi migrants was 13 while even for Nepal, it was 4. In 2024 alone, 4813 Bangladeshis lost their lives.
Interestingly, Pak authorities did not always release details about how many of their citizens are killed or wounded after they leave home for better jobs and facilities. As for Nepal, a curious feature is that even when they ‘make it abroad’ some of the migrants commit suicide, accounting for around 13/14% of the deaths that occur. While Nepalese authorities, (as with Bangladesh), make special efforts to set up cordial bilateral official communication channels with as many countries as possible, to avoid serious problems, they cannot always control unpredictable individual behaviour from individual citizens.
Official studies indicate that migrants tend to commit suicide or take extreme steps to address their post migration issues to secure relief from permanent problems they feel cannot be solved. Many suffer from problems resulting from mounting debt, the failure to send back home required remittance amounts, poor working conditions at office and place of residence, lack of social support, etc. Despite best efforts made by Consular authorities, it is not always possible for concerned diplomatic staff to address the individual problems of people.
Interestingly, accidents apart, most of the deaths of migrants occur in the Middle East, in the oil rich Gulf countries. Around 80%+ of deaths of Indian migrants occurred in these countries. Bangladesh also reported most deaths occurring in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE Oman and Bahrain. The local government authorities usually cite sudden cardiac arrests or natural causes the reason for most fatalities, but local reports also suggest that other attendant factors are at play — such as overwork,, exhaustion, poor working conditions,, exposure to high temperatures and heat in , outdoor work and so on. .
This is not to suggest that there is any move officially or otherwise in India or elsewhere in South Asia to reduce the flow of migrant traffic to the Gulf region Along with China, Mexico and Ukraine, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are among the highest exporters of manpower to the world at large. The sheer volumes of remittances the migrants send back home is too large a part of their respective national budgets, if not of their overall economy. (IPA Service)
