A retelling of the Indian migrant worker’s plight

Subject :Polity

As per the World Migration Report 2022 of the International Organization of Migration (IOM), there were approximately 281 million international migrants globally in 2020, with around two-thirds being labour migrants.
There were around 169 million labour migrants in 2019 and 164 million in 2020.
The share of South Asia is 40%. Moreover, the South Asia-Gulf Migratory Corridor is the world’s largest migrant corridor.
The long-term data analysis has shown that migration is not uniform across the world. It is shaped by economic, geographic, and demographic factors, that result in distinct migration patterns.
It was reported that as a consequence of the “post-pandemic job search” around 300 Indian engineers from Tamil Nadu were trafficked to Myanmar to work for a crypto-scam and about 20 Indian nurses were trafficked to the United Arab Emirates for fake job offers.
Kerala government data showed that 1.7 million people returned from abroad during the pandemic (between June 2020 and June 2021) and 1.5 million suffered job losses.
As per a document tabled in the winter session of Parliament, about nine million Indian migrants are working in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) countries.

Associated Concerns:

It is argued that though India is the largest source of migrants and remittance-receiving country, the welfare of Indian migrants abroad is hardly prioritized by policymakers.
It is also a matter of serious concern that India lacks a tangible and comprehensive migration policy to ensure the safe movement of migrants and decent living.
India still governs international migration through the four-decades-old Emigration Act of 1983.
The situation in many GCC countries is worrisome. For instance, the existing exploitative nature of the Kafala system has resulted in the mass retrenchment of the labour force.
Kafala system is described as a sponsorship system that regulates the relationship between employers and migrant workers.
COVID-19 has increased the cases of unemployment, under-employment, reduction in salaries, and, even non-payment of salaries, compensation, and residual dues.
Other recurring issues faced by migrant labourers are irregular payment, poor working conditions, the negation of labour rights, the absence of proper grievance redress mechanisms, and inaccessibility to a transparent judicial system.

‘justice for wage theft’ campaign

Several South Asian countries along with their civil society organizations, scholars, and activists are leading a ‘justice for wage theft’ campaign for the disbursement of the pending salary benefits and other associated dues of labour.
Countries like the Philippines have recorded the wage theft of their migrants and are legally working on the issue.

Women Migrants:

It should be noted that Indian nurses and caregivers have been working in the most volatile and remote countries like Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Israel, and Papua New Guinea.
Moreover, the women migrant workforce is largely limited to GCC countries and also to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
Indian Government should thus comprehensively assess the situation of migrant women and create women-centric, rights-based policies.
The Government should revisit its policies in the context of the post-pandemic scenario by engaging all stakeholders and passing the Emigration Bill 2021.

Global Compact for Safe, Orderly Migration and Regular Migration

In the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, adopted in September 2016, the General Assembly decided to develop a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) sets out a common, comprehensive approach to international migration.
The GCM is a voluntary, non-binding document that introduces no additional obligations to states. It is a global agreement setting out a common framework, shared principles and best practices on international migration.
It aims at cooperation between states and promotes measures to strengthen regular migration pathways, to tackle irregular migration, and to protect human rights of migrants among other objectives.
The compact includes 23 objectives and a set of possible actions for each one, from which governments can draw in responding to the issue.
Notably, the Global Compact establishes a United Nations mechanism allowing Governments and companies to contribute technical, financial and human resources for implementing it.
The global compact is framed consistent with target 7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in which member States committed to cooperate internationally to facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration.

About World Migration Report

It is produced by the Migration Research Division (MRD) of IOM, in collaboration with some of the leading academic and applied researchers and other migration experts from across the world.
It has been produced biennially since 2000.
It has been produced to contribute to an increased understanding of migration and mobility throughout the world.
The 2020 edition won gold in the 2021 International Annual Report Design Awards.

International Organization for Migration

It is an intergovernmental organization that works closely with governmental, non-governmental, and intergovernmental partners in the field of migration.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
The objective is to provide for the organized transfer of migrants, including refugees, displaced persons and other individuals forced to leave their homelands; meet the needs of both emigration and immigration countries, and provide migrants with resettlement services.
India was granted an observer’s status to IOM in the year 1991 and became a member state in 2008.
IOM has helped India airlift Indian nationals out of Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion and also repatriation of about thirty thousand Indians stranded abroad in the last 15 years.