Friday, 15 November 2013 00:02
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The Sri Lankan Government has established temporary shelters for migrant workers who were unable to leave Saudi Arabia ahead of an amnesty deadline earlier this month. Reports indicate that 1,000 workers have already been supplied with safe houses while another 500 remain in line. Yet, the number awaiting extraction could be much more.
At the end of the amnesty period, the Government had stated that only 10,000 of the 16,000 who registered to be returned were actually able to do so. The Government is still struggling to extract these remaining workers and it remains a huge concern as they face a fine of Rs. 3 million and a one-year prison term.
The tragic execution of Rizana Nafeek aside, the increase of migrant workers to the Middle East is worrying for several reasons. One is that despite Government attempts to regularise recruitment agents, there has been little progress on stamping out unfair labour practices. Moreover, even if rouge agents are finally clamped down on, there is little headway that can be made to ensure that the Middle Eastern Governments and their companies, agents and contractors will provide adequate workers’ rights. The large number of people who took advantage of the amnesty is proof of that.
In a recent report, Human Rights Watch had called for better treatment of low-income migrant workers whose numbers are expected to increase by an estimated million people in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar alone. In a 665-page 2013 World Report, HRW said that although some Middle East countries such as Qatar’s labour law limited working hours, required paid annual leaves and outlined requisite health and safety conditions for work environments, enforcement of the law was weak and did not cover female domestic workers.
High levels of abuse have been repeatedly highlighted in local media, yet a heartbreaking high number of workers, especially women, continue to search for a better life in Saudi. Within the first five months of this year alone, 19,445 women had departed to Saudi Arabia as housemaids. What has been done to ensure that they don’t join the 6,000 waiting at the embassy?
This is a siren call for the Government to get its act together and work to protect migrant workers in the future. It is clear that greater awareness and training is also necessary so that migrants can get better pay and work conditions. They need support services, including being able to save and invest their salaries here and in the country of employment, so that when an injustice is done, they have an authority to turn to rather than waiting for amnesty from foreign governments.
Without a clear legal framework being ironed out, migrant workers run the risk of being victimised multiple times, not only by their foreign workers and regulations, but by the policymakers and diplomats of their own country, who pay scant attention to their requirements. This amnesty should be the last time that Sri Lankans have to rely on a foreign government to return them to their homes. The fate of those that did not make the deadline has to be monitored and they have to be protected by the Government and relevant authorities.
