A letter was sent to the participants of the Colombo Process [consultations held in January regarding worker rights] by a coalition of human rights groups. What was its message?
All of these groups have been working on these issues for a long time. What we’ve seen is that, whilst some superficial reforms have taken place, the key measures have not been implemented by governments. So we made several recommendations on what could be done to ensure that migrants have adequate legal protection. The first of these is to extend equal protection under labour laws to domestic workers. In many countries, the vast majority of workers are migrant women and they do not receive even the most basic rights.
Why do you think definitive action is taking so long to arrive?
There’s not enough political will. Many of these migrants are poor, they don’t have a lot of political clout and they are easily exploited. It’s quite easy for a government to sit back and enjoy the benefits of migration. Labour-sending countries get an incredible amount of remittances. In many of these countries, it’s a significant proportion of their GDP. It helps alleviate unemployment problems, and the countries of employment need these nationals because their own workforce are unwilling to take low-paid, dangerous jobs.
What impact do unregulated employment agencies have?
The types of problems that take place during recruitment are really the root cause of the resulting exploitation. What’s interesting is that these types of problems occur, not only with completely unlicensed or illegally operating recruitment agencies, but even with those that are licensed. That’s because they are not adequately regulated or monitored – they are given a free reign to do whatever they like. The most common problems are deceiving migrants about what their work conditions will be: often they are promised one set of wages or one set of working hours that are vastly different from what they will encounter abroad.
Another problem is the imposition of excessive recruitment fees. These recruitment agencies will charge extortionate fees that leave migrants heavily indebted. When these migrants have such a heavy financial burden abroad, it makes it almost impossible for them to leave their employment conditions if they face abuse, because they have such pressure to repay those debts.
Do employer-linked visas contribute to this situation?
Yes. It varies from country to country, but in the Middle East almost all of the countries tie the worker’s visa to the employer, so they need the employer’s permission to change jobs. Of course, when you have an employer who is withholding two or three months of your wages, housing you in poor conditions and you ask them to be transferred to another employer, they are exactly the type of employer that’s likely to refuse.
Is it legal for employers to retain an employee’s visa?
In the United Arab Emirates, I believe it’s not legal, although not many people know this as there are no adequate enforcement mechanisms. It’s really important for migrants to know their rights, for employers to know their obligations and for both parties to know that the rules are going to be enforced.
Do you think this will change?
It is extremely important that it does change to protect migrant’s rights and reduce the risk of exploitation. I think there’s a lot of resistance on the part of the employment countries due to the large numbers of migrants in their countries and a fears of undocumented migration. But the experience of other countries has shown that de-linking these visas from employers may actually reduce undocumented migration. At the moment, workers facing poor working conditions run away because they can’t stand it and then work as an undocumented worker for some-body else.
Who should they go to if they feel they are mistreated?
One of the places they should go is their embassy or consulate. If they are in construction, they actually do have access to labour courts and can make complaints through the normal channels. This is often really intimidating for workers who are afraid of being deported, but in many cases it will help them, especially if other workers from that employer make a similar complaint. They should also probably contact a member of the press, because these channels are not necessarily working properly at the moment and sometimes visibility and publicity can actually increase accountability.
And for domestic workers?
The best thing to do is to contact their embassy and consulate. Most of the embassies actually have shelters for domestic workers because there is absolutely no other place for them to go.
