A retelling of the Indian migrant worker’s plight
- December 28, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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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.