Psycho-Social Health Condition of Returnee Migrants during Post COVID-19: A Study in Moulvibazar District of Bangladesh

Migrants have been hit the hardest by the global pandemic. During the pandemic around 1.55 lakh Bangladeshi migrants returned home after losing jobs. A global statistical revolution demonstrated the unprecedented changes of the mental health condition of returnee migrants of Bangladesh after the pandemic. This situation bound them to face a psycho social environment in their country of origin and that ultimately leaded them to confront their health hazards. But the way to overcome the watershed is far away since in Bangladesh there is no enough activities like counseling or community base group support to minimize or address the phenomenon. Though in today’s world, the concept psycho-social health has become one of the concerning issues, it’s been neglected and is not prioritized at all like physical health. Like other affected countries, Covid-19 evidenced a remarkable example of ill mental health and social disorganizations among the persons who returned to Bangladesh and intended to stay for at least a year. In this aspect, the study employed both quantitative and qualitative method to find out the reality of present psycho social health situation of the participants. The study found that the returnee migrants face several challenges like losing of work, the unavailability of organizational and governmental facilities, family’s financial crisis and disorganization. Moreover, they have to face several types of mental health problem, losing of hopes, and harsh experiences of lives and livelihoods. In many aspects, they become unable to meet their household expenditures, repay loans, maintain social life, and to meet their children’s educational expenses. However, they need to get support from the government and other entities to have financial support, vocational training and psychosocial counseling to play a pivotal role to overcome this situation.