Dhaka, Nov 4 (bdnews24.com)—Sixty percent of Bangladeshi migrants face workplace injury abroad, but only 10 percent of the injured workers receive medical services from employers, a small-scale study has shown.

About 50 percent of the workers say their mental health status has deteriorated after migrating abroad, according to the study, jointly carried out by the International Organisation of Migration and the ICDDR, B.

As many as 95 percent of Bangladeshi migrant workers also suffer from common diseases such as diarrhoea, skin infection, respiratory problem, fever and others, says the report, presented at a seminar in the city on Wednesday.

"Although done on a limited scale, we believe this study presents a balanced picture of the situation—highlighting the challenges, but also ways to go about it," IOM's Region Representative Rabab Fatima told the seminar.

The study was focused on seven unions of Chittagong's Mirsarai Upazila, a migration prone area. Government officials say about 50 percent Mirsarai population are currently working abroad.

ICDDR, B researcher Rumana Saifi interviewed 200 migrants and 200 potential migrants averaging 37 years of age for the study.

Sixty percent of them said they had lived away from family members for years.

HIV/AIDS was an issue. Some 66 percent of the migrants said they did not know any of the symptoms of the disease while 30 percent of the migrants had sex with women.

"One in 20 migrants used condoms when they last had sex," the study says.

"Comparatively high proportion of migrant labourers had penetrative sex with sex workers," it said.

The IOM's Rabab Fatima, however, sounded a note of caution.

"Any correlation between international migration and sexually transmitted infections and HIV infection in particular has to be made with great caution," she said.

She said the IOM would continue working closely with the government and other partners to successfully address the challenges of migration in general and that of migration health in future.

State minister for health and family welfare minister Mozibur Rahman Fakir was chief guest at the seminar held at the Spectra Convention Centre.

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