migrant workers & human rights in south asia 1 migrant workers and human rights: role of trade...
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Migrant Workers & Human Rights in South Asia
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Migrant Workers and Human Rights: Role of Trade Unions in South Asia
Pong-Sul AHNSenior Specialist on Workers’ Activities ILO Sub-regional Office for South Asia
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Contents of Research
General trend in tracing a history of migration
Legal framework on migration
Employment perspective
Economic impacts on sending countries
Economic impacts on receiving countries
Household economy for migrant workers
Human and labour rights
Trade union responses
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General Trends in Tracing a History General Trends in Tracing a History of Migration of Migration
In 1950s and 60s, academically and professionally qualified persons migrated to UK, USA
In 1970s, to the oil rich countries of Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman
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In 1980s, unskilled and semi-skilled workers have migrated to the newly industrialised countries of South East Asia such as Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia.
Some migrant workers started returning home countries from the Middle East due to the sharp decrease in oil revenues, threat by wars and slowing down of development activities.
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Legal Framework on Migration Legal Framework on Migration
Bangladesh : (1) The immigration Act of 1922 framed by Britain was replaced with the Emigration Ordinance in 1982.
Nepal : the Foreign Employment Act of 1985 was amended in 1999. Labour migration is adopted as a poverty reduction strategy
India : (1) The Emigration Act of 1983, replacing the earlier legislation of 1922, which was shifted to protection from the control in the colonial days. (2) The Central Manpower Export Promotion Council
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Pakistan : (1) The Emigration Ordinance and Rules were promulgated in 1979. (2) the federal Ministry of Labour has established institutional setup to regulate labour emigration
Sri Lanka : (1) Foreign Employment Act of 1985 was amended in 1994 (2) The National Employment Policy looks specially at migration issues, adopting a proactive approach to promoting overseas employment
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Ratification of ILO conventionsRatification of ILO conventions
Migration for Employment Convention No.97 (1949)Migration Workers Supplementary Convention No.143 (1975)1990 UN international Convention on Protection of Rights of
All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
• Bangladesh :all ratified • Nepal : not ratified• India :not ratified • Pakistan : not ratified• Sri Lanka : all ratified
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Factors Promoting Out-migration Factors Promoting Out-migration
Economic, social and catalytic factors -Poverty-economic empowerment
A study on 200 Bangladeshi return migrants in 2000 were interviewed and categorised them into five groups including distressed economic condition, further improvement of economic status, social factors, political factors, and other reasons.
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In Nepal, ‘push factors’created by constant wars and ‘pull factors’created by a growing number of youth.
In Pakistan, effort made by the Government who consider out-migration as a pivotal measure to curtail unemployment and reduce poverty
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Employment Perspective : Employment Perspective : Figures of Migrant Workers from South AsiaFigures of Migrant Workers from South Asia
Bangladesh : a yearly average outflow of labour force, 1991-2002, is around 226,000 persons.
Nepal : in 2001, total 762,000 people have been living in foreign countries. Around 77% of this population is living in India.
Sri Lanka : 203,000 persons were recorded to be employed in other countries in 2002.
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India : 3.5 million in the 6 Gulf cooperative countries including 1.5 mil in Saudi Arabia, 1 mil in UAE, 400,000 in Oman, 300,000 in Kuwait, etc.
368,000 persons were migrated in 2002, while 437,000persons obtained suspension of emigration clearances in the same year.
Pakistan : the total number of emigrants, 1971-2003, is some 3,157,000 persons. During the year 2002, around 147,000 Pakistanis went abroad for employment
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Employment Perspective Employment Perspective
Migrants relieve unemployment and underemployment in their home countries. A study in Bangladesh shows that 45.5% of migrants were involved in different types of income generating activities and 54.5% did not have any employment.
In Sri Lanka, 78.9% of the total females and 68.3% of the males got married.
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the majority of the migrants are unskilled or semi-skilled. In Nepal, 75% of labour migrants are unskilled and 25% are semi-skilled.
Bangladeshi and Pakistani migrants are predominantly men, while Sri Lankan migrants are mainly women.
During the period of 1991 to 2003, women in Bangladesh constituted less than 1% of the total migration, while women in Sri Lanka comprise over 68% of total migration. Of the Nepali migrants as of 2002, 4.95% are women and 95.05% are males. The gender basis of migration has not been documented in India.
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Economic Impacts on Sending Economic Impacts on Sending Countries : Countries :
Remittance Flow Remittance Flow Remittances also constituted a very important source of the country’s development budget.
Bangladesh : foreign exchange earnings have increased from a figure of US$ 23.7 million in 1976 to US$ 2617.9 million in 2002.
Nepal : Official remittance was 2.9billion Nepali Rs in 1990, which account for 7.7% of foreign exchange earnings. It increased 69 billion Rs in 1997, which is about 25% of GNP and 65% of all foreign exchanges.
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India : increased from US$ 3587 million in 1991 to nearly US$ 11,830 in 1998. Various incentive schemes are given non-resident Indians for their investment.
Pakistan : With the tune of US$1,617 million annually since early 1970s.
Sri Lanka : 123,183 million Rs in 2002 making up 27% of the total foreign exchange earnings of the country
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Economic Impacts on Sending Economic Impacts on Sending Countries : Countries :
Return Migrants Return Migrants
The study in Pakistan shows that 79% of skilled return migrants enhanced their skill-level during overseas employment.
But 49% of returnees had not been able to utilise their enhanced skills after coming back to the country.
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Economic Impacts on Receiving Economic Impacts on Receiving Countries Countries
lower labour costs generally increases efficiency and strengthens the competitiveness position of the host country
Some people argue that migrants steal jobs from the native workers and create unemployment in host countries.
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Migrant workers depress the labour market, consequently reducing the level of earnings of national workers.
the presence of foreign workers has had no depressing impact on the wages of local workers
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Household Economy for Migrant Workers :
General Perspectives
A study in Bangladesh found that 56% of the families experienced positive economic results, 25.5% negative economic results and for 15.5% families, economic impacts of migration were mixed.
In the case of Nepal, outmigration is a survival strategy of rural households. Remittances is being used for food security.
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A case study of village Kheda, Dona India where a majority of the migrants have gone to UK, Canada and other European countries shows that families with emigrants are enjoying better social amenities.
In Pakistan, the migrants after return are faced with the economic problem of maintaining higher living standard of their families.
In Sri Lanka, the positive impact of the earnings of migrant workers has been tangible, but the adverse social cost of migration has been also high.
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Household Economy of Migrant Workers :
Income and Investment
Major part of their foreign savings and earnings have been used for routine and basic needs of life, buying land, building house, paying bank debts and spending on marriage.
Migrant have used their remittances in many areas. Land is the safest and very profitable investment.
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Indian migrants to Gulf countries are not able to save much; In Sri Lanka, 80% of the families use the income earned to meet consumption needs, while only 10% saved the remittances in full and another 10% saved a part of the remittances.
A study in Pakistan shows that 41% of return migrants could not invest their money and 59% made some investment. About 62% of investment of remittances went to real estates.
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Household Economy of Migrant Workers :
Educational Aspect In Bangladesh, better opportunities for education could be created for the children and in others, education of children suffered because of the absence of either father or mother
In Pakistan, most of the migrants’ children had the setback of education of their children. Children pay little attention and effort to their education.
Return migrants in India are able to send their children to better schools where tuition fees are high. Migration has brought a lot of change in the attitude of parents particularly towards female education.
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In Nepal, about 20% of women migrants responded a survey said they have faced family problems like children’s education.
In Sri Lanka, one of the serious consequences of female migration is the negative impact on children from lack of care and neglect to physical and mental abuse. 33% of female migrants had faced family related problems.
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Human and Labour Rights Human and Labour Rights
The violation of human rights of migrant workers has become more critical in the Middle East and due to the anti-terrorism campaign.
Migrants experience difficulties on account of ethic, cultural or religious differences
Majority of unskilled and semi-skilled migrant workers do not know labour laws of the countries where they migrated.
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100 interviewees in Bangladesh in 2003 shows that a total of 44 migrants received regular medical check-ups at the countries of destination.
Fraudulent job offer, forced labour, delay and non-payment of salary and heavy workload becomes major complaints of migrants.
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Trade Union ResponsesTrade Union Responses
In Bangladesh, the trade union movement is yet to take any measure in support of migrant workers. The trade unions have contacts with trade unions of only a few labour receiving countries.
In Nepal, trade unions started organising migrant workers.
In Pakistan, there is no trade unions’ policy on migration, no supportive mechanism available, no networking with trade unions in labour receiving countries.
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In India, trade unions are sensitised on the rights of migrant workers. No policy is adopted, except their participation in activities organised by the ILO, ICFTU, or WFTU.
In Sri Lanka, several trade unions have recognised the female migrant domestic workers as an active and important labour force. Migration Service Centres are being operated.
Trade unions are required to play a significant role for the protection and promotion of migrant workers’
rights.