Human rights of migrant workers during the pandemic
Universal Declaration of Human Rights ensures equal treatment of all human beings for rights and dignity, which has been approved by most of the state parties. As of December 2019, a total of 55 states ratified the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all migrant workers and members of their families (ICRMW). However, almost none of the migrant-receiving countries have either ratified it or signed it.
In the context of the lack of a globally agreed protection instrument for the migrants, a holistic and comprehensive document, known as the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) has been signed by 193 states including worker receiving countries to cover all the dimensions including human rights of the migrants. It is also the first intergovernmental negotiated agreement.
Unfortunately, human rights for migrants are not yet ensured anywhere in the world, which the ongoing pandemic has revealed more vividly than ever before.
The GCM objective 7 talks about addressing and reducing vulnerabilities in migration. This is about all stages of migration with emphasis on the countries of destinations. However, the recent international and national media reports have shed light on the level of discrimination towards migrants at various countries of destination during the pandemic, except very few countries. The pandemic has created more vulnerability for the workers in many places, including increased chances of COVID-19 transmission. We heard about Kuwait, where they just dumped more than six thousand undocumented workers in a place in inhuman conditions without proper food and accommodation. In such a way, their health-rights were also violated by the state party. However, the government of Bangladesh has finally brought back these migrants.
In many destination countries, the infection rate of COVID-19 is higher among the migrant community in comparison to the local citizens. The reason is simple. The living conditions of migrants are vulnerable to the point where a large group has to share a single room, sometimes a very small one which increases chances of rapid transmission of the virus. Such living conditions are sometimes inhuman. They even have to live in very dirty places as reported by the international media and migrants themselves several times.
The history of migration is long but migrants' living conditions have never been improved in most of the countries. Workers are being treated as machines of production, mere commodities. They work for the longest hours and then have to spend their nights and free time in the unhygienic environment at home or camps, which is contradictory to workers' rights.
When the pandemic began, most of the country’s workplaces, factories, workshops, construction sites, etc. were shut down. This has created further vulnerabilities for the workers. The majority of the Bangladeshi migrants work in countries of the Middle East where workers started to suffer with no salary or wages and even spending days without food and shelter, unable to pay house rent. CNN reported on 9 May, a 44 year-old migrant stated that ‘for the past two months, we have been sitting in the room and our company has been giving us our salaries, but now they are saying that they cannot pay us anymore and we should buy a ticket to go home, but with what will we buy the ticket?’ This was in one of the richest countries in the world, UAE. Why should this happen to the workers who dedicated their lives for the development of these countries, where there is no crisis of food?
Conversely, we have heard good news also from UAE, that they will extend temporary legalisation for the undocumented workers in the countries during the pandemic situation.
These workers are in the worst situation in the country like Saudi Arabia. They migrated through a so called ‘free visa’ that has made them more vulnerable during the pandemic situation. They work on a daily basis or on a contractual basis, and as a result during the lockdown and curfew, their earning has been fully stopped. The number of such ‘freelancers’ is huge in Saudi Arabia and according to the overseas migrant community there, most of them will be bound to return home in the coming days.
The undocumented workers are in a grave situation in many countries now. From the beginning of the pandemic, we heard that Malaysian law enforcing agencies have started operations against the undocumented migrants. We never support undocumented or irregular migration, but during pandemic situation, they at least deserve human behaviour from the authorities, since the very people to employ these migrants were also the locals, Malaysians and not Bangladeshis. When these workers served their employers for a long time, how could they disregard them during such a crisis?
Workers are returning home during the pandemic. Already some migrants have returned home and we are hearing that a huge number of them will return soon from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia and even from the Maldives. Many of the companies at various destination countries have already declared lay-off, and are terminating workers. As a result, workers have started to lose their jobs. As per ICRMW, employees cannot be terminated in a group. Then the question is why do such a huge number of workers have to return during the pandemic? Are they all undocumented? Is that the reason? Even if that is so, this cannot be done during the pandemic situation as it is inhuman.
We are getting predictions from various sources that near about half a million workers may return in the coming days from various countries of destination. We are worried. All of them may not get proper compensation. However, the Bangladesh government has already demanded that these workers get at least six-month salary from their employers if they are terminated. It is difficult to predict the upcoming situation, but it will not be good for us as a source of migrant workforce. We need huge internal preparation, but the government of Bangladesh should raise its voice in the international forums at this moment to protect the human rights of the migrant workers during and post pandemic situation referring to the UDHR, ICRMW and GCM. The situation created by COVID-19, will not resolved anytime soon, and migrants’ rights violation may continue unfortunately. Of course bi-lateral discussion with the host countries should continue, but to protect the rights of the migrants we- the government and the civil society -need to continue appealing to the United Nations and other human rights defenders at the international level. Everything may not be resolved, but we need to put forward our best effort.
Hassan Imam is the managing director of DEVCOM, a research organisation. He has worked with BRAC as head of its migration programme and a consultant with IOM and ILO.