On Friday 7 October eight Bangladeshi nationals were executed in Saudi Arabia, according to a report by Amnesty International. The migrant workers were beheaded in public. They were sentenced to death for the alleged murder of an Egyptian man in April 2007. Since the end of the holy month of Ramadan executions have resumed in Saudi Arabia at an alarming rate. The recent beheadings bring the number of executions in this year to at least 58. Twenty of those executed in 2011 were foreign nationals, mostly migrant workers from poor and developing countries who often have no defence lawyer and are unable to follow court proceedings in Arabic.
Migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh in Athens have become targets of fascist violence in the recent weeks. In the wake of the economic crisis attacks by Greek right-wing extremists are reportedly increasing.
“The Deported” by director Mahbub Alam Pollob shows the fate of Bangladeshi and Nepali migrant workers being deported from South Korea because of their efforts to organise fellow workers. The documentary was shown at the Korea Madang “Organisation and Oppression of Migrant Workers in South Korea” held in Berlin on 31 August 2011.
Auf der Veranstaltung im Rahmen der Reihe Korea-Madang werden am 31. August 2011 die beiden Filme “The Returnee” und “The Deported” des aus Bangladesh stammenden Regisseurs Mahbub Alam Pollob gezeigt. Die beiden Filme setzen sich mit der schwierigen Lage von WanderarbeiterInnen in Südkorea und der politisch motivierten Abschiebung von Aktivisten auseinander.
Im Anschluss an die Filmvorführung gibt es Gelegenheit zum Gespräch mit zwei Berliner AktivistInnen, die zum einen mit der Situation von MigrantInnen in Südkorea vertraut sind und zum anderen selbst in Berlin für die Rechte von MigrantInnen aktiv sind.
Human rights organisations call for the protections for migrant workers as Ministers from Asian labour-sending countries meet in the context of the Colombo Process in Dhaka from 19 to 21 April 2011. Human Rights Watch, Migrant Forum in Asia, and CARAM Asia released a briefing paper released today say Asian governments should give priority to protecting migrant domestic workers, who are at especially high risk of abuse, and to ending recruitment-related exploitation.
