The immediate upheavals may end soon, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on millions of low-skilled migrant workers and their home countries will reverberate for long, especially in the form of redundancies, joblessness, forced return, shrinking remittances and so on. The state policy of lockdown across countries meant to shun the contagion of the virus has abruptly seen migrant workers out of jobs and livelihoods.
Simultaneously, the mandatory confinement provision has pushed them at a greater risk of infection, as substandard and unsanitary living arrangements does permit little in maintaining a social distancing, if any. The disproportionate number of infection and death cases among migrant workers in the GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, KSA and UAE) as well as in Singapore illustrates this predicament.
The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to increase the vulnerability of MDWs in multiple ways. Since MDWs serve as cleaners, helpers, cooks and child or elderly persons’ carers and also because they take care of ill members of the host family, they are enormously susceptible to this deadly virus.
Shockingly, even amid this unprecedented time of border closure and travel ban, the GCC countries have exerted enormous pressure on the originating countries to take back their workers, and have overtly threatened to review the existing labour ties if the countries do not comply with the directives. Hundreds of thousands of stranded South Asian workers anxiously waiting for return flights to their home countries from UAE and Kuwait is indeed a stark after-effect of that intimidation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has once again exposed the vulnerability of low-skilled migrant workers. Nonetheless, what is still unknown to the wider community is the plight of millions of migrant domestic workers (MDWs), who were already in a precarious state and were prone to abuse and exploitation in the GCC countries. According to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), an international body that works for the interest of MDWs, an estimated 2.1 million MDWs in the GCC countries continue to risk severe exploitation.
Notably, Bangladesh has become one of the major source countries for domestic workers to the GCC countries in recent years. Statistical data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) shows that around 600,000 women migrants have taken overseas jobs only since 2014, the majority of whom have held jobs as domestic workers in the Middle Eastern countries. However, against this increased opportunity, the story of harsh treatment and premature return was a recurrent topic in both national and international news media until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bringing allegations of serious torture and abuse against the employers and recruitment agents, more than 5000 women domestic workers returned home and at least 60 committed suicide in the past four years.
Domestic workers can be victims by having to serve family members with corona symptoms. Also, there is a chance that the economic strain of the host family, due to business or job loss of any member, may pass on to the MDWs in the form of withholding or curtailing salary or even in the form of job termination
The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to increase the vulnerability of MDWs in multiple ways. Since MDWs serve as cleaners, helpers, cooks and child or elderly persons’ carers and also because they take care of ill members of the host family, they are enormously susceptible to this deadly virus. Moreover, the live-in nature of the job that made them invisible from the rest of the society including the embassies, in turn, jeopardises their vulnerability. Because of this particularity, they are seen to be automatically excluded from all forms of information, notices or assistance delivered by the embassies.
It is commonly known that the MDWs are either not allowed or have limited scope to communicate with their near and dear ones, which can increase anxiety and stress levels in this critical time. Furthermore, domestic workers can be victims by having to serve family members with corona symptoms. Also, there is a chance that the economic strain of the host family, due to business or job loss of any member, may pass on to the MDWs in the form of withholding or curtailing salary or even in the form of job termination.
It is reprehensible that the MDWs in the GCC countries have to work much longer than the ILO’s standard of 48 hours in a week. During the lockdown, MDWs could be burdened with excessive work as all members of the family are expected to stay at home. Moreover, given the fact that the incidence of domestic violence increased globally at an alarming scale during this lockdown, the MDWs also risk increased violence in this critical time. Likewise, lockdown also might have diminished the ‘runaway’ option to escape from the abusive and exploitative employer at extreme cases.
The undesirable reality is that the human rights of migrant workers have been violated since decades in the GCC countries, especially because of the prevailing sponsorship or ‘kafala’ system. The sheer power imbalance between employers and MDWs, and the lack of educational background hardly help MDWs to negotiate multi-faceted exploitative working environments in an isolated workplace, where the harsh treatment is a common practice.
COVID-19 is a new reality that presents an extra threat to jeopardise the already existing vulnerability of MDWs. Hence, putting of necessary measures in place in collaboration with host governments seems vital to protect them during these unprecedented times of crisis.
Mohammed Hossain Sarker is a PhD Candidate at the University of York, UK and can be contacted at mhs549@york.ac.uk