When Hamida Parvin returned home to Bangladesh last February for a holiday from her job as a nanny in Qatar, she was excited to see her 17-year-old son after a year apart.
But as the COVID-19 crisis suddenly escalated flights were canceled, and Parvin's joy soon became a nightmare "scramble for survival" as she scoured for ways to provide for her family.
"I went mad looking for jobs ... nobody was hiring," the 35-year-old said at a small cafe in the capital, Dhaka, where she works as a chef. That job is the family's main source of income, as her diabetic husband is often unwell.