A/HRC/53/26/Add.3 8. There were around 281 million international migrants in 2020. 3 Bangladesh is currently the sixth largest migrant sending country and is the eighth largest remittance receiving country worldwide.4 Annually, about 500,000 people migrate from Bangladesh to work abroad. Remittances sent from Bangladeshis abroad bring in around $18 billion annually, which is about 40 per cent of the total foreign exchange earnings and 7 per cent of the gross domestic product.5 9. Bangladesh has one of the highest population densities and is the seventh most populous country in the world, with an estimated population of close to 173 million people. There is an average of more than 1,000 people per square kilometre throughout the country, 6 with Dhaka being one of the most densely inhabited cities worldwide, signalling the high rate of rural to urban movements of people in search of better living conditions and employment opportunities. 10. An estimated 20 per cent of the population in Bangladesh are young people between the ages of 15 to 24, around 2 million of whom will enter the labour force annually.7 Many of these young people will be unemployed, as the domestic labour market will not be able to provide employment for all of them. With many Bangladeshis viewing going abroad to work as a “dream” worth pursuing at whatever cost, along with family pressure to migrate, many young people will attempt to migrate to send remittances home to support their families. 11. Bangladesh was one of the poorest nations in 1971, when it became independent. Over the years, it has developed rapidly as a lower-middle-income country and is on track to graduate from the United Nations list of least developed countries in 2026. The impressive rate of growth and development will need to be sustained as the country transitions from least developed country status to upper-middle-income status. Labour migration will thus continue to be a key driver for development, with Bangladeshis mainly motivated to go abroad in search of better economic conditions for themselves and their families back home. 12. With labour migration as an area of priority focus for economic development and growth, the Government continues to expand opportunities to send workers abroad, including by engaging with new markets. Currently, the main countries of destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers include Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, while labour migration to Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Romania, and Hong Kong, China, has also opened up. An increase in women migrant domestic workers going to Saudi Arabia and a bilateral agreement with Jordan on workers in the ready-made garment industry has also contributed to increased migration among women. 13. According to the information received by the Special Rapporteur, despite the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, over 1 million Bangladeshis went abroad for employment in 2022, 10 per cent of whom were estimated to be women. The Government took a number of initiatives to address the influx of migrant workers returning due to the pandemic and had to provide financial support to outgoing migrant workers throughout its 32 diplomatic missions abroad. 14. The Special Rapporteur notes that Bangladesh also has a number of migrant workers coming into the country, mainly from neighbouring countries, however, this phenomenon is at a much smaller scale compared with those engaged in international labour migration from Bangladesh. The Special Rapporteur did not receive specific data on the number of foreign workers in the country. Much of the information that he received during the visit was in the context of Bangladesh as a country of origin for migrant workers and the concomitant human rights challenges within this context. 3 4 5 6 7 GE.23-08750 International Organization for Migration (IOM), World Migration Report 2022 (IOM, 2021). Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/world-migration-report-2022. See https://bangladesh.iom.int/news/world-grows-281-million-migrants-bangladesh-6th-largestmigrant-sending-country. See https://migrantmoney.uncdf.org/resources/insights/bangladesh-faces-a-crisis-in-remittancesamid-covid-19/. Population trends are available from https://www.unfpa.org/data/BD. See https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/skilling-bangladeshs-youth-changing-jobmarket. 3