Bangladesh is unlikely to see an immediate fall in remittances from Saudi Arabia even as Houthi attacks on the kingdom intensified from early October, but a slowdown in new migration could weigh on inflows in the years ahead.

Following the attacks, migration to Saudi Arabia, the largest destination for Bangladeshi workers, has already been disrupted. As of Sunday, 144 direct and transit flights had been affected by prolonged flight restrictions at Saudi airports, disrupting the travel plans of around 22,000 passengers.

But economists and manpower experts say remittance inflows are unlikely to be hit immediately because newly arrived migrant workers typically take about a year to start sending significant amounts of money home.

According to them, the longer-term impact will depend on the duration of the crisis, the performance of the Saudi economy and demand for labour, particularly in construction.

A prolonged crisis that damages the Saudi economy could slow job creation and reduce workers’ incomes. But the outcome is not necessarily negative for the kingdom’s economy.

If Houthi missile and drone attacks continue without damaging oilfields and refineries, higher global oil prices could boost Saudi revenues, potentially supporting investment and demand for foreign workers, according to Zahid Hussain, a former lead economist at the World Bank’s Dhaka office.

“But everything is uncertain so far,” he commented.

Remittances are a major source of foreign currency for Bangladesh, accounting for around 7.5 per cent of gross domestic product, according to World Bank data. Their importance has grown amid volatility in global energy markets following the US-Israel war on Iran, which has sent shockwaves through sectors ranging from agriculture to the garment industry.

In the July-September quarter of the current fiscal year, Saudi Arabia remained Bangladesh’s largest source of remittances. Inflows from the kingdom rose to $1.65 billion, up from $1.23bn in the same period of FY26, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

The kingdom accounted for 19.2pc of Bangladesh’s total remittance inflows in the first quarter of FY27, compared with 16.26pc a year earlier.

During the July-September quarter, overall remittances reached around $8.59bn, with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries continuing to account for the bulk of transfers.

Diversifying overseas jobs is becoming urgent

The latest disruption shows Bangladesh’s heavy reliance on a handful of overseas labour markets, leaving migrant workers and the economy exposed to regional crises.

Since FY2014-15, Saudi Arabia has employed around half of the 9.6 million Bangladeshis who went abroad for work. Workers in the kingdom have sent home an average of $5bn a year.

The pressure on migration is already evident. Overseas employment fell 36pc year-on-year to 134,000 in the July-August period this year, following a decline to around 969,000 workers in FY26, the lowest level in five years, according to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training data.

Tasneem Siddiqui, executive director of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), a local think tank, said the crisis exposed the structural weaknesses of the country’s migration sector.

“Therefore, rather than relying on piecemeal decisions, we must completely overhaul and diversify the manpower market. Otherwise, one crisis after another will emerge, leaving us perpetually vulnerable,” said Tasneem, also a political science professor at Dhaka University.

She said the government needs a long-term strategy to develop skills suited to specific overseas markets and expand employment opportunities beyond traditional destinations.

“Long-term strategic planning is essential. Particularly, allocating a mere 0.08pc of the budget for a $35bn remittance sector is grossly insufficient to accomplish meaningful interventions,” she said.

Meanwhile, economist Zahid said Bangladesh should target countries facing ageing populations and labour shortages, including Japan and countries in eastern Europe, where demand for workers in nursing, caregiving and manufacturing could offer alternatives to Middle Eastern markets.

Sayema Haque Bidisha, an economics professor at Dhaka University, also called for greater diversification of migration destinations, stronger diplomatic engagement and better support for expatriates through overseas missions.

She said Bangladesh needs to improve its international image by demonstrating that its workers can fill skilled jobs, rather than being seen primarily as a source of manual labour.

Shariful Hasan, associate director of BRAC’s Migration Programme and Youth Platform, said earlier this month that many Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia depend on daily or weekly employment and that security concerns have reduced work opportunities.

Pakistan faces greater exposure than India

Bangladesh is not the only country with a significant reliance on remittances from Saudi Arabia.

Its neighbours India and Pakistan also depend on money sent home by their citizens working in the kingdom, although the potential impact varies.

Saudi Arabia is Pakistan’s largest source of remittances, contributing $9.78 billion in the last fiscal year, according to State Bank of Pakistan data.

Meanwhile, around 7pc of India’s international remittance inflows originate from Saudi Arabia. The country receives about $8 billion annually from the kingdom, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

A prolonged crisis that affects employment and earnings in Saudi Arabia could therefore have a greater impact on Pakistan than on India, given Pakistan’s substantial reliance on the kingdom as a source of remittances.

Orangutan populations are at a higher risk of extinction amid soaring forest loss and raging wildfires across key habitats in Sumatra and Kalimantan, as the world struggles to keep up with the global target of halting biodiversity loss by 2030.

In a joint report published on Oct 24, environmental groups Mighty Earth and Satya Bumi issued a “red code” warning for the Tapanuli orangutan, often considered world’s rarest great ape, which is facing a higher extinction risk.

The species is endemic to the fragmented forests of the Batang Toru ecosystem in South Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra. But the ape faced another danger when at least 58 individuals inside the ecosystem were killed by the cyclone-induced floods and landslides in the region in 2025, leaving only an estimated 658 Tapanuli orangutans remaining in the wild.

In their report, the environmental groups noted the disaster had damaged more than 8,300 hectares of forest in the western Batang Toru ecosystem, the largest of the three forest blocks inhabited by the orangutans.

Enforcing a moratorium on industrial expansion, smallholder agriculture and small-scale logging, which are among the main drivers of rainforest destruction in orangutan habitat, remains vital, according to Phil Aikman, Southeast Asia campaign director of Mighty Earth.

Limiting the business may pave the way for a recovery plan for the species, which includes restoration of the fragmented rainforest canopy across the ecosystem.

“There is now far too little Tapanuli orangutan habitat left to allow any further rainforest loss,” Aikman told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Weeks after the 2025 disaster, President Prabowo Subianto suspended business permits for 28 companies for alleged environmental breaches that worsened the impact of the disaster.

Among suspended businesses were the Martabe gold mine of PT Agincourt Resources, a subsidiary of global conglomerate Jardine Matheson, which sits on the western edge of the orangutan habitat.

Meanwhile, the Batang Toru hydropower plant, developed by Chinese-backed power producer PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE), is one of the government’s national strategic projects (PSN) to reinforce Sumatra’s electricity system.

Both the mine and the power plant intersect with the geographical range of the Tapanuli orangutan in Batang Toru.

Earlier this year, the government allowed the two companies to resume their operations after they were claimed to meet environmental compliance and paid for the subsequent fines. The gold mine is developing a new pit northward, while the power plant is fast tracking the operations of its 510-megawatt (MW) facility.

Spokespersons of the two companies had not responded to the Post’s requests for comment at the time of publication.

Concerns over orangutan populations have come as Indonesia battles with raging wildfires in recent months that have also threatened critically endangered Bornean orangutans.

As of early October, at least 290 animals had been rescued from multiple scenes across the country, including 96 Bornean orangutans that were relocated from burning peatland in four Kalimantan provinces.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has also warned about the orangutans, as fires affected 52 per cent of the total Bornean orangutan population, including those situated in national parks.

The piling pressure on wildlife in Indonesia has also renewed scrutiny over the world’s goal of halting biodiversity loss by 2030, as hundreds of national parties and international groups gather in Yerevan, Armenia for the United Nations biodiversity talks (COP17) to accelerate the global goal of conserving 30 per cent of land and ocean in the next four years.

The target was first established four years ago under the “30 by 30” framework, which includes slowing down species extinction and mobilising a $200-billion nature fund by 2030.

But a recent assessment by the UN found the world is largely off track to reach the 23-goal framework, despite around 60pc of the 196 signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) already established national biodiversity strategies and action plans.

Indonesia ratified the CBD in 1994 and has since developed national biodiversity strategies and action plans. But the country remains behind in several important areas of conservation and environmental policies, with Indonesia ranking 168 out of 177 countries assessed by Yale University.

Addressing the summit on Oct 16, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged leaders to deliver more action, speed and will to “make peace with nature”, as he highlighted: “There is no time to waste.”