Migration is perhaps the most ‘overlooked’ phenomenon of modern times, argues Jason DeParle. Nevertheless, stories involving migrants, directly or indirectly, keep on cropping up in the international media, such as reports from earlier this year that a Thai farmworker in Israel was killed by a Hamas rocket. The article is mainly about migration in the US and its impact on political debates, but DeParle makes some interesting points that are applicable to the situation in the Middle East, such as this:

Theorists sometimes call the movement of people the third wave of globalization, after the movement of goods (trade) and the movement of money (finance) that began in the previous century. But trade and finance follow global norms and are governed by global institutions: the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund. There is no parallel group with “migration” in its name. The most personal and perilous form of movement is the most unregulated. States make (and often ignore) their own rules, deciding who can come, how long they stay, and what rights they enjoy.

This is a serious point and certainly applies to migrant workers in the Middle East, where governments seem to make up the rules as they go along when it comes to guest workers. In this context, are existing multilaterals and international legal instruments enough to protect the rights of vulnerable economic migrants?

A few weeks ago we blogged about how Migrant Forum Asia had complained that existing labour conventions were not sufficient to protect female domestic workers. Do these forgotten millions deserve more attention? Undoubtedly yes.

Migration has been happening for centuries, but several factors make movement of people in this generation different from any other, according to the article:

First is migration’s global reach. The movements of the 19th century were mostly trans-Atlantic. Now, Nepalis staff Korean factories and Mongolians do scut work in Prague. Persian Gulf economies would collapse without armies of guest workers. Even within the United States, immigrants are spread across dozens of “new gateways” unaccustomed to them, from Orlando to Salt Lake City.

A second distinguishing trait is the money involved, which not only sustains the families left behind but props up national economies. Migrants sent home $317 billion last year — three times the world’s total foreign aid. In at least seven countries, remittances account for more than a quarter of the gross domestic product.

A third factor that increases migration’s impact is its feminization: Nearly half of the world’s migrants are now women, and many have left children behind. Their emergence as breadwinners is altering family dynamics across the developing world. Migration empowers some, but imperils others, with sex trafficking now a global concern.

Global migrants are more numerous than ever before. The stakes are high, and the risks numerous for the millions of workers on the move around the world. But more often than not – especially in the Middle East – migrant workers stay out of sight and out of mind

The campaign website, www.twenty-four-7.org, adds that the campaign aims at altering the servant stereotype, established between an Asian/African person and a Lebanese person, and proclaims:

We want to show a more creative, powerful, proud, self-reliant, and intelligent face to migrant workers, as business women and representative of rich and sophisticated cultures.

The activities for the 24/7 Campaign include a week-long Twitter and Blogging campaign in which activists and migrant domestic workers will share thoughts and stories about the issue of migrant domestic workers’ rights online, in the week leading to May 1st. And on May 1st, campaign activities include an African Dance Party, a food festival at the Souk el Tayyeb with food from the Philippines, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Nigeria, a solidarity march from Bourj Hammoud, to Souk el Tayyeb (Saifi), and a free concert featuring various artists.

For more information, contact 24sevencampaign (at) gmail (dot) com and comms (at) indyact (dot) org

Special video for the event by artist and blogger Maya Zankoul:

The HRW report raises the issues of passport confiscation, abuses of domestic workers and bans on trade unions as key issues in the region. Bahrain and Kuwait have taken steps towards removing the kafala system, which ties the right of a migrant to remain in the country to the permission of his sponsor. However, a disturbing finding is that migrant domestic workers are excluded from the new legislation. This is particularly concerning to M-R.org given the spate of suicides and attempted suicides by distressed maids working in the region in recent months (see here and here)

Here are some extracts:

Bahrain

In May 2009 Minister of Labor Majeed al-Alawi announced a proposed revision to Bahrain’s kafala (sponsorship) system designed to reduce the risk ofexploitation and abuse of migrant workers. The former system tied migrants’ work visas and immigration status to their employers, enabling employer abuses and preventing workers from changing jobs or leaving the country. Under the amended law, which was adopted on August 1, the government officially sponsors each worker, allowing him or her to more easily change employers. At this writing it remains unclear whether the reform has been fully implemented. Bahrain’s business
community strongly opposed the changes, and workers still need the defacto sponsorship of an individual or company in order to remain in the country legally. Migrant workers complain that some employers illegally withhold passports and fail to pay wages.

The amended law excludes migrant domestic workers, who are at especially high risk of abuse due to their isolation in private homes. In 2009 prominent cases involved physical abuse, forced confinement, and the death of domestic workers.

Kuwait

Parliament in May 2009 debated a draft revision of the Labor Law that would incorporate more protective provisions on wages, working hours, and safety. However, it does not establish monitoring mechanisms for workers’ rights, and continues to exclude domestic workers from its protections. Approximately 700,000 migrant women—chiefly from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines—are employed in Kuwait as full-time live-in domestic workers. Their exclusion under the current labor law deprives them of protections afforded other workers, such as a weekly rest day and limits on working hours. Many domestic workers complain of confinement in the house, long working hours without rest, months or years of unpaid wages, and sometimes verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Domestic workers who fled abusive situations at their workplace have often become stranded at their embassies, at deportation centers, or
at recruitment agencies. In October 2009 Indonesia banned further migration of domestic workers to Kuwait in response to having 600 workers trapped in its embassy. A major barrier to the redress of labor abuses is the sponsorship (kafala) system by which a migrant worker’s legal residence in Kuwait is tied to his or her employer, who serves as a “sponsor.” Migrant workers can only transfer employmentwith their sponsor’s consent, although a reform in August 2009 frees them of this requirement if they have worked more than three years (migrant domestic workers do not benefit from this provision). Sponsorship traps workers in abusive situations,
including in situations of forced labor, and blocks their access to means of redress. If an employer withdraws sponsorship, workers who flee abusive workplaces can be arrested and deported for being out of status in the country. Kuwaiti law enforcement officials rarely bring to justice Kuwaitis who abuse their powers as sponsors.

Saudi Arabia

An estimated eight million largely Asian and Arab foreign workers fill manual, clerical, and service jobs. Many suffer multiple abuses and labor exploitation, sometimes rising to slavery-like conditions. A new anti-trafficking law passed in July set prison sentences of up to 15 years for forced labor. However, Saudi Arabia made little progress reforming the restrictive kafala (sponsorship) system that
ties migrant workers’ residency permits to their employers, fueling abuses such as employers confiscating passports, withholding wages, and forcing migrants to work against their will.

In July 2009 the advisory Shura Council extended some labor protections to the 1.5 million migrant domestic workers, but excluded the right of workers to leave the house or keep their passports, and obliges them to obey the employers. Asian embassies report thousands of complaints each year from domestic workers forced to work 15-20 hours a day, seven days a week, and denied their
salaries. Domestic workers frequently endure forced confinement, food deprivation, and severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse.

Migrants sometimes face severe delays in the immigration and justice systems, and obstacles such as lack of access to interpreters, legal aid, or their consulates. Few migrants successfully pursue criminal cases against abusive employers. Following a dispute with his sponsor, officials on October 26 detained pending deportation Usama Hijazi, an Egyptian legal adviser living in Saudi Arabia for 16
years. Hijazi had just won a court ruling in his favor against his sponsor, granting him 155,000 riyal (US$41,000) and allowing him to transfer his sponsorship. Authorities repatriated Keni binti Carda, an Indonesian domestic worker, in late 2008 before she could formally complain about her employers causing her severe burns and prying out her teeth. She returned to Riyadh to press charges, but as of
November 2009 criminal proceedings had yet to begin. In August Saudi morality police raided a shelter run by a Filipino support group, though prosecutors later dropped charges against 18 persons present.

UAE

Many female domestic workers are subjected to unpaid wages, food deprivation, forced confinement, and physical or sexual abuse. In August 2009 the Philippines government paid to fly home 44 Filipinas who had been living for months at a shelter. The women were among 127 Filipinas, mostly housemaids, who fled their workplace after complaining of mistreatment, long working hours, insufficient
food, and nonpayment of salaries. The standard contract for domestic workers introduced in April 2007 provides some protections and calls for “adequate breaks,” but does not limit working hours or provide for a weekly rest day, overtime pay, or workers’ compensation.
Exploitation of migrant workers by construction companies across the country is also severe: abuses include maintaining unsafe working environments that contribute to avoidable illness or deaths, and withholding workers’ travel documents. On August 31, 2009, police and labor officials quickly dispersed a demonstration over low wages by as many as 2,000 striking migrant workers employed by construction
and engineering company Al Habtoor in Dubai. A Ministry of Labor investigation into the strike cleared the company of any wrongdoing after determining it had not broken any rules regarding pay.

The report also mentions the case of UAE royal family member Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan who is still yet to be charged for torturing an Afghan migrant. Disturbing video footage of Al Nahyan whipping, beating and finally running over the man with his car in the desert was leaked in 2009.

Contractors catering to foreign troops fighting in Afghanistan often employ migrant workers from the developing world.
Among those stranded was Subhedar Khandu, who paid US$ 3300 to an agent in return for the promise of a an $800-per-month job in the construction sector in Afghanistan:

“I took out a loan to pay the agent, who I met in Bombay. I thought I would get a one-year contact,” Khandu said.

Instead, when he arrived in November, he was locked up in a house with other labourers, given only one meal per day and no work or salary. When his visa expired a month later, the agent vanished and the men turned to their embassy in desperation.

“We were locked in a kind of camp for one month. This is much better but we have nothing to do still, we just sleep a lot.”

Many of those stranded were former construction labourers working in the Gulf states, who had lost their jobs as a result of the economic slowdown. These men would, in all probability, have had large loans to pay off in order to gain jobs in the Gulf in the first place, and taking a chance on the promise of a job in Afghanistan, whatever the dangers, may have been their only chance of repaying their debts and supporting their families back home.

Not only this, but Annabasan Co. is still demanding money from the workers themselves, according to John Leonard Monterona, Regional Co-ordinator of Migrante-Middle East:

“The employer of the 89 distress OFWs is still insisting that the 89 OFWs must pay each one an amount ranging 4,000 to 8,000 Saudi Riyals (equivalent to P48,000 to P97,000) as payment for their deployment cost—which is highly questionable and unjustifiable”

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs is reportedly negotiating with Annabasan Co., but the fate of the 89 OFWs remains uncertain.

Low-skilled migrant do not have enough knowledge about their rights to be deployed overseas, Pranoto Iskandar, Founder of the Institue for Migrant Rights. Their lack of skills and awareness means that migrant workers are frequently abused, leading to cases of physical abuse and in some cases, death, he said.

The Indonesian government imposed a ban on its nationals working in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait earlier this month as a result of endemic human rights absuses (See Migrant Rights story here)

“There is a real community desire to show appreciation to the workers who help shape the city. The Shoe Box Appeal is one small but real show of support for their welfare,” said a representative of Helping Hands, an NGO which facilitated the distribution of the boxes.

To date, this is the only corporate social responsibility project by a multinational for the welfare of construction labourers that M-R.org is aware of- despite the fact that abuses of these migrants is one of the biggest human rights scandals in the Gulf region. While it is commendable that Radisson chose to remember the plight of construction labourers during the month of Ramadan -and successfully managed to engage school children in a project for their welfare- surely this gesture is missing the point somewhat?

The very fact that migrant labourers are in need of everyday items needed for cleanliness and comfort, such as soap and toothpaste, should at least set some alarm bells ringing. These workers generally live in squalid conditions outside the city limits, and many of them are severely in debt due to non-payment of wages or unscrupulous manpower companies who charged them extortionate fees to migrate to Gulf countries to work in the first place. (For more information about human rights abuses of construction workers, visit the website of Mafiwasta , an advocacy organization that works specifically on migrant construction workers in the Gulf) If the backbone of a nation’s workforce is reduced to such a state that they have to receive rudimentary charity from members of the public in this way then this indicates that there is a serious problem. Construction workers in the Gulf need corporations to commit to more than just toothbrushes and kind sentiments – they need serious attempts to guarantee their basic human rights and safety in the workplace.

When will we see the big players of the corporate world take a stand on this issue? When will we see the real estate giants and international hotel chains stating that they will no longer tolerate shoddy safety conditions on their construction sites, or that they will monitor their local development partners to make sure that migrant labourers are actually getting paid? Until they act decisively, schemes like the ‘Shoe Box Appeal’ can be nothing more than cosmetic.

Al Jazeera Report: Domestic workers abused in the Gulf – 07 Oct 09

Not surprisingly, Iraq tops their list of the highest-risk countries for workers, due to dangerous working conditions, absence of minimum wage and anti-union discrimination. Iraq and Saudia Arabia rank jointly as the most dangerous countries in the world for female workers.

All countries in the Middle East, apart from Tunisia, Algeria and Israel are classified as ‘extreme risk’ countries for workers, according to the report. For example, migrant workers in Qatar are routinely deported if they test positive for HIV/AIDS in compulsory medical tests, while maids in the Gulf country are frequently subjected to sexual abuse and violence by their employers.

The report should be a helpful resource for companies who want to understand the uncomfortable reality of human rights abuses of workers in the region. However, what the Maplecroft’s report says in statistics, rankings and risk maps has been common knowledge in the Middle East for many years. For example, most people working in the Gulf States – both expats and locals- realise that the region’s extraordinary construction boom has been enabled by cheap migrant labour in dangerous and exploitative conditions. But it’s just more comfortable for most people to turn blind eyes to the issue and to be resigned to the conclusion that ‘that’s just how things are here’. Now the corporate world’s interest in CSR is growing, as companies increasingly want to send out a message to the world that they do not support human rights abuses in any aspect of their business. The fact that companies such as Maplecroft sell such reports is proof of this. However, as far as M-R.org is aware, no companies have made a concrete effort to stop exploitative practices in the Middle East, especially not in the Gulf. For example, not a single real estate or construction firm has to publically condemned exploitation of labourers or taken any steps to improve their conditions.

Perhaps the culture of exploitation and abuse of workers is so ingrained in Middle Eastern countries that it will take some time for international corporations to internalise the message of reports such as Maplecroft’s and to take action to minimise human rights abuses.

For more information about human rights issues and the corporate world, visit the website of Business and Human Rights, an organisation which tracks the positive and negative effects of over 4000 companies accross the world. They have a wide variety of links to stories on the Middle East and North Africa here.