JAKARTA - Millions of Asians migrate to the Middle East, but as the current Iran war on Israel and the United States continues, workers and governments are scrambling for safety.

Bangladesh, with roughly 3 million workers in Gulf states, reports hundreds stranded due to closed airports and borders. Two Bangladeshi nationals have been reported killed and several others wounded by Iranian missile and drone attacks across the Gulf, including in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Flights from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, were also halted after the US and Israel struck targets in Iran and Iran hit back. In the aftermath, several Middle Eastern states closed their airspace. Hundreds of passengers, mostly migrant workers headed for jobs and Umrah pilgrims, were stranded at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Pakistan, which sent 96% of its migrant workers to Gulf countries in the Middle East, issued high alerts since the start of the conflict. Islamabad had already evacuated 103 Pakistanis plus one Croatian via the Gabd-Rimdan border with Iran on Monday, totaling 650 over two days, as Gwadar Deputy Commissioner Naqeebullah Kakar oversees land-route repatriation.

The US Embassy in Pakistan and its consulates in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore also cancelled all scheduled U.S. visa and American Citizen Services (ACS) appointments on March 2 due to violent protests and security concerns around their diplomatic missions. At least 26 were reportedly killed during a pro-Iran protest outside the US consulate, according to Pakistani officials.

“Even in instances where some protesters turn violent, law enforcement must assess the situation on a case-by-case basis, exercise restraint, and use force only where absolutely necessary,” said Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia.

India, with around 9 to 10 million migrants in Gulf states remitting $30 billion annually, faces acute exposure in Israel, UAE, and Saudi Arabia.

Major airlines like IndiGo and Air India have cancelled and suspended flights. Nearly 180 flights by Indian carriers were dropped in a single day as key hubs like Dubai International Airport and airports in Abu Dhabi and Doha closed or restricted operations due to airspace shutdowns.

“Punjabis in the Middle East are caught in a war zone,” Sukhbir Singh Badal, the president of India's Sikh-centric party SAD, pleaded to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “A special airlift operation should be initiated immediately once air routes reopen.”

Indonesia has not announced a blanket suspension of all outbound migrant workers or any government-run charter evacuations, but instead, airlines and some airports in the Gulf have suspended or rerouted services after the strikes.

“Since the beginning of the escalation, we have activated our crisis management mechanisms. We conduct daily, integrated monitoring with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all Indonesian missions in the region,” said Indonesia’s Minister of Migrant Worker Protection (KP2MI) Mukhtarudin in a written statement on Tuesday, March 3.

“The country is not waiting for the situation to worsen.”

The Philippines’ Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) assures aid and monitoring but says there is no mass repatriation yet, even as cancelled flights and security concerns disrupt travel for many migrants.

“But for the countries in the Gulf and Israel, we have not yet reached the level of repatriation — mass repatriation — but there are already requests, for example in Dubai, asking if possible — it’s a live count, of course — whether they can go home. So we are already preparing as well,” said Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac.