Mostafa Kamal Majumder
Malaysian labour activist Charles Hector Fernandez recently told their government that detention of 2400 undocumented migrants, mostly Bangladeshis, at 15 immigration depots must be followed up by a thorough investigation on the journey from their country of origin. He asked for action not merely against the irregular migrants but also the agencies that were involved in their movement. This, he said, involves identifying the responsible parties from the time of the migrants’ arrival to the processes leading to their employment in Malaysia, or resulting in them being “undocumented”, said a message originating from Petaling Jaya on 23 January last. The raid against undocumented migrants was the second since 2011.Malaysia has been active in addressing the problems of migration and in last November has signed a memorandum of understanding on a process of recruitment of workers from Bangladesh through a government-to-government mechanism. In fact 30,000 workers are reported to have been sent to Malaysia at recruitment fees that come to about $400 per worker, as against $4000 to as high as $8000 charged by private manpower recruiting agents before. Though manpower exporters – about 1200 of them – have threatened to suspend their activities to protest the move, it has created favourable impact on ordinary Bangladeshis many of whom look for overseas employment for themselves or their wards.
The reason is simple. High unemployment rate at home makes at least a quarter of 1.8 million people who enter the job market a year go abroad for work, an influential member of the government has said. An estimated 8.6 million Bangladeshis at work in 157 countries remitted 14 billion dollars in 2013. This was 11 percent of GDP, six times the foreign aid, and 13 times the foreign investment. Remittance has helped the balance of payments remain buoyant for the last three decades. There are 8.0 million unemployed people including 5.5 million unpaid family helpers.
The undocumented workers arrested in Malaysia face deportation that would mean disasters to their families that sent them selling their last dependable assets dreaming of better future based on remittance. Arrest and deportation of irregular migrant workers have grown alongside growth of international movement of labour because of deceptive tactics used by recruiting agencies from their countries of origin and unfair treatment by a section of employers in the countries of destination. The exploitation has increased so much that in many cases a migrant worker cannot recover the recruitment fees even after working for 2.5 years.
Recently senior media executives at a consultation in Jordan in the second week of January elaborately discussed how best to help improve the process of recruitment of migrant workers from the countries of origin and their working conditions in the countries of destination through the creation of awareness about the roles they play in the development of the Arab Countries. The meet followed the adoption of limited liberal policies by some Arab countries allowing undocumented labourers to regularise their status by submitting relevant documents. Arab countries employ about 23 million (2.3 crore) migrant workers and remittance from the region is now the highest in the world. In 2009 Saudi Arabia alone was the source of $26 billion worth of remittance which was second only to the United States, said Ibrahim Awad, professor at the American University of Cairo.
Arab countries generally do not have labour activists like Fernandez of Malaysia. However partnerships have started to develop, and some studies have been done on the state of the migrant workers in these countries. The United Arab Emirates has allowed the production of a documentary on the life of migrant workers in secluded ‘camps’.
Media executives coming from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries said, one key difficulty in writing on problems faced by migrant workers in the Arab States is the lack of their access to the work places or places of living of migrants. Journalists come to know of developments like new arrivals, deportations, accidents or suicides but cannot verify the information by directly talking to migrants.
Daud Kuttab of the Community Media Network of Amman, Jordan said he found only the diplomatic mission of the Philippines quite active in helping secure and protect the rights of their migrant workers. In Bahrain the Indian embassy was similarly active. But missions of other are difficult to be contacted to crosscheck information.
Jordan highly regards the education levels and skills of the migrant workers and has taken measures to regularise documents of irregular migrants, said Hamada Abu Nijmeh, secretary general of the Jordanian Ministry of Labour. He said the overflow of Syrian refugees, who need no visa to enter the kingdom, and their recruitment to different jobs has created shortage of work for Jordanians. Daud Kuttab mentioned some radio stations often aired provocative messages against the employment of migrant Syrians at the cost of the Jordanian job seekers.
The two-day meet (Jan 13-14) was hosted by the ILO, Beirut and organised by Panos Europe under the patronage of Jordan’s Ministry of Labour, with the aim of building partnerships with the media, and fostering quality reporting on migration and migrant workers, and helping improve the governance of migration in the region. The meeting deliberated on how the media could be more effective in the dissemination of news on the plight of the migrant workers who help the Middle Eastern countries to build their cities and highways, and increase income of their families back at home but remain neglected at both ends. Senior media executives from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ethiopia took part in the consultation.
The meet, also attended by labour law and rights experts from ILO, the migrant forum in Asia, Manila, and the Centre for Indian Migration Studies provided an wide array of discussion on different aspects of reporting on migration issues, problems and their solutions.
Ahmed Al Battashi, editorial coordinator of Oman’s largely circulated Arabic newspaper Al-Watan was of the view that the embassies of migrant workers’ countries like Bangladesh should interact with the newsmen of Arab countries to help them write informed stories on problems the migrant workers face while on employment in the Middle East. He said, though difficult, they utilised the interpersonal relations of their employers with officials to collect information from their government on issues centring on migration, but failed to countercheck such information with officials of the migrants workers’ countries of origin.
The abuses that the migrant workers are subjected to both during and after their recruitment in the countries of origin and destination are by and large known, said ILO’s senior migration expert Azfar Khan. The condition of domestic workers is even worse and there were cases of slave labour. There is little legislation to deal with migrant workers who are managed under the age-old Kafala system.
The traditional Kafala system is an institution of sponsorship that is central to regulating the employment and stay of non-nationals in all GCC states. It requires every migrant to have a Kafeel – a national sponsor – who assumes full economic and legal responsibility for the duration of the migrant’s stay. In some cases migrants suffer exploitation. Azfar Khan was of the view that the media can play an important role to draw attention of people to how things can be done better, because the workers have no voice, no representation in the Arab countries.
In the words of Ibrahim Awad migrant workers in the GCC states are vitally important to them as they not only build their cities and industries but also create market for their products. Remittance sent by them back home not only enhances income of their families but also creates better housing, education facilities and health benefits for family members. They also pay a high social cost migration in the form of loss of property and in many cases disintegration of families – as they stay away from homes for long periods of time.
Of late there are tensions in some Arab countries like Qatar, Kuwait and Oman where migrant workers by far outnumber local residents, as fears of security mount. Migrants on the other hand do not enjoy civic rights. Human rights is a very sensitive issue in the Arab world and so journalists in these countries concentrate on human sufferings instead of pressing for the enforcement of human rights, said Ms Reem Khalifa senior editor at Bahrain’s Al-Wasat newspaper. For domestic workers even the ILO guidelines do not have notable safeguards, said one speaker.
Most Arab newspapers again are run by foreigners as the pay and perks for this high-tension job generally do not attract Arab youths who look for highly-paid jobs for less work. Not even Arab journalists can directly interact with government officials to write informed stories. Foreign journalists do self-censorship and avoid the publication of sensitive news or play safe to protect jobs, according to Vani Saraswati, managing editor of Just Here online, Doha, Qatar. Critical writings on migration issues published in the countries of origin of the migrant workers are again biased against the destination countries, said Osama El Ghazoly, a senior freelance journalist based in Cairo. The gap of understanding thus is quite wide. But just as the oil rich Arab countries are dependent on the migrant workers for their uplift, the migrant workers are also dependent on the former for jobs and income. The workers however also deserve to be treated more humanely to live and work with dignity.
Prof. Ibrahim Awad suggested the need for free and frank discussion on migration issues for cooperation and understanding to solve those, because tension and acrimony will not help. The media can play a significant role in creating a better environment for dispelling misconceptions. In the countries of origin the media should raise awareness about human and labour rights of the migrants. Senior media executives along with experts brainstormed on how to equip journalists with the knowledge and training to better handle migration-related stories, through better understanding of issues, collection and verification information and the creation of a network of media workers of migration source and destination countries to mutually benefit from each other’s inputs. The outcome looks promising as a surge in improved reporting on migration is expected grow if things proceed as discussed as follow-ups to the initiative that ILO Beirut and Panos Europe have taken. (The writer is the editor of Greenwatch Dhaka)
