Around 1.6 lakh Bangladeshis are passing their days in uncertainty in crisis-hit Lebanon as most of them have either lost their jobs or remained unpaid over the last few months.

In such a situation, many of the Bangladeshis have returned home from the West Asian country.

The undocumented workers, however, were facing challenges in doing so mainly due to delay by the Lebanese authorities in giving them the go-ahead, said officials and the migrants there.

The crisis in Lebanon, which has been facing a stagnant economy for nearly a decade due to financial mismanagement, deepened in recent months with an acute dollar shortage leading banks to restrict foreign currency withdrawals in the heavily dollarised economy, crushing imports, reports Al Jazeera.

Scores of business have closed down and thousands of employees have been laid off or had their working hours and wages slashed. Meanwhile, prices of everyday goods have gone up.


Last year, the World Bank estimated that up to half of Lebanon’s population could fall into poverty, up from 30 percent in 2018. Unemployment, “especially among youth, is already high and could further rise sharply”, it cautioned.