The aim of this report is to highlight the challenges that women migrant workers from South Asia who returned from the Middle East experience when trying to resume their lives upon return. It highlights gaps in the implementation of policies and programmes for sustainable reintegration of migrants. It identifies opportunities for improvement based on migrant women’s own desires and ambitions, as well as the work of civil society organisations working with them.

The report is based on research conducted between July 2020 and March 2021 with 486 returnee migrant women from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Most had worked as domestic workers in Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon for between several months and several decades. The research employed participatory methods and explored women’s experiences with return, work and income upon return, access to government programmes, and relationships within the family and community.

Read the report here.

Read Policy Briefing: Women migrant workers are building our countries’ futures