One illustrative case presented by Amnesty International was a 19-year-old who left his family in Nepal to work in Malaysia. He wanted to leave Nepal because the communists were forcing young men to become fighters, threatening death for noncompliance. He borrowed the equivalent of US$1000 to pay for the journey, but when got to Malaysia the agent’s promise of work never materialized. He had to beg to survive before finding work, and because the agent kept his passport and failed to renew his visa, he now lives and works illegally in Malaysia, constantly worried of being picked up by the authorities. He can’t go home because he doesn’t have a passport, and his illegal status means he earns less than other workers—not enough to send money home to the family.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a “roundup” of violations of migrants’ rights on Dec. 16, including documented cases of children held in detention centers without their parents, where they were physically and sexually abused, governments denying migrants of their health care benefits, and injustices perpetrated with no hope for redress.
Dec. 18 was chosen to mark the occasion because on that day in 1990 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the “International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families,” simply known as the International Migrant Convention.
The Convention seeks to draw attention to the dehumanization of migrant workers and members of their families, including the deprivation of their basic human rights, according to UNESCO. Western countries, including the U.S. have not ratified or signed the convention, but the same principles are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The United Nations Population Division in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs is predicting approximately 214 million international migrants in 2010, which represents about 3.1 percent of the world population. In numbers of migrants, the U.S. has by far the most, with 42.8 million, while Russia is second with 12.3 million. The 214 million figure does not include internal migrations within countries.
Domestic Workers in the Middle East
Domestic workers and construction workers compose a large proportion of legal migrants. They are typically heavily indebted to their recruiter. Domestic workers usually do not have the same labor protection laws as others. Saudi Arabia hosts the largest number of domestic workers in the Middle East with at least 1.5 million. Many instances of forced labor occur because domestic workers cannot easily leave their workplace or the country without an “exit visa.” New laws this year guarantee domestic workers nine hours of rest each day and suitable accommodation, the HRW report says.
Kuwait’s 600,000 migrant domestic workers are excluded from the country’s labor law and the report says that “many work long hours with no rest days for little pay.” They cannot leave their employer without the employer’s consent.
Jordan became the first Arab country to include its 70,000 domestic workers under it labor protection law, which limit daily working hours, provide medical insurance and one day a week of rest. Even with the new law and regulations this last September 2009, employers are still allowed “to lock their live-in workers inside the house, stipulating that the worker cannot leave without the consent of the employer, even after working hours,” says the HRW report.
For the estimated 200,000 domestic workers in Lebanon who come mostly from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Ethiopia, the right is not guaranteed for a domestic worker to leave the workplace and retain her passport. This year and last, HRW found high death rates for domestic workers—eight dying in October alone.
Asian Countries Hosts Millions of Migrant Laborers
An estimated 150 million from the rural countryside seek work in China’s cities as migrant workers, according to official sources. But due to China’s household registration or hukou system, they are barred from access to medical care, and their children’s education, and other social welfare benefits. The HRW report notes some exceptions made this year in Guangzhou and Shanghai, but, in general, throughout China, discrimination based on residency means few migrant laborers are treated as equals to urban residents.
Many of Thailand’s two million migrants, primarily from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos, are subject to curfews and restrictions in gatherings, and are even prohibited in their use of vehicles and mobile phones, according to the report. “In 2009, Human rights Watch documented arbitrary arrest, killings, beatings, torture, and systematic extortion inflicted on migrants by police and local authorities with impunity,” says the report.
“Migrant workers are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation largely because they cannot change jobs without their employer’s permission,” said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific deputy program director. “Work conditions are sometimes so bad that they run away and consequently, lose their regular status and are then subject to arrest and deportation.”
Other Countries’ Violations of Migrants’ Rights
Public hostility toward Romanians and Roma in Italy has been exacerbated by the government with the passage of vigilante laws, potentially creating state-sponsored terrorism against these migrants. This year, Italy seized boat migrants on the high seas and returned them to Libya without any screening to identify refugees, sick or injured, pregnant women, unaccompanied children, and victims of trafficking, says the report. Italian officials used undue force, including electric-shock batons and clubs. They also confiscated “personal property of migrants, including money, mobile phones, passports, and refugee certificates,” the report says.
This year, Egyptian border guards shot and killed at least 17 migrants mostly from Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Egypt sends back Eritreans as policy, despite the fact that they are likely to be tortured or otherwise mistreated upon return. The HRW report accuses Israel of returning migrants to Egypt “without adequately considering asylum claims,” which is a violation of international law. Egypt then sends those rejected from Israel to places like Eritrea or Sudan.
Russia hosts millions of migrant workers coming from countries of the former Soviet Union. Migrants have been known to be cheated of their wages, “forced to work excessively long hours, threatened, and physically abused,” says the report. Sometimes employers and employment agencies confiscate migrants’ passports and force them into slavery.
Violations of immigrant rights may not be as prevalent in the United States as the countries above, but the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was criticized in 2009. HRW said women’s health concerns are not addressed while they are held in detention. The women migrants lack standard health care available to other Americans, because the ICE puts their emphasis on emergency medical care, says the HRW report.
According to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), the ICE’s fugitive operations program that was tasked to apprehend and remove fugitive aliens who pose a threat to the community, has shifted its focus to making mass arrests of undocumented migrants who have no prior criminal convictions. “It is troubling that a program billed as having an explicit national security focus instead appears to be aimed at arresting non-criminal unauthorized immigrants through the use of SWAT-like operations, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of MPI’s office at New York University School of Law.
Friends Read Free