The theme of this meeting is, “Sustaining Regional Cooperation Toward Improved Management of Labor Mobility in Asia.” Last week, organizers extended a few invitations to civil society representatives to observe some sessions but they will not be allowed to speak. Civil society will hold a parallel consultation process to discuss their recommendations for governments.
“Increased regional cooperation is essential for improving protection of migrant workers’ rights,” said William Gois, regional coordinator of Migrant Forum in Asia, a regional network of more than 200 migrants’ rights groups in Asia.”But as civil society, we want to know what is going on, we want to be part of the process, and we demand opportunities for genuine participation.”
The governments will discuss the draft for a “2012 Framework of Regional Collaboration of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue,” which would commit them to taking domestic, bilateral, and multilateral measures to increase the benefits of international labor migration. The draft is based on the input from the first dialogue and a meeting of senior officials in January. Preparatory documents for the conference include examples of best practices and recommendations on government oversight of four stages of migration: recruitment, employment abroad, preparation for return, and reintegration.
“The draft framework contains many positive elements that could help reduce recruitment-related exploitation and workplace abuse of contractual migrant workers,” said Nisha Varia, senior women’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch. “But it should also call on governments to revise labor laws and immigration policies that contribute to abuse, especially the exclusion of domestic workers from labor codes and sponsorship systems that link a worker’s residency to his or her employer.”
Migrant workers play a key economic role. They fill labor demands in host countries and provide much-needed income for their own countries. In 2011, the World Bank estimates, Asian migrants sent home US$191 billion in remittances. Gulf countries in particular rely heavily on Asian contract labor; for example, there is approximately one migrant domestic worker for every two Kuwaiti citizens. Migrants from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have provided the labor for construction booms in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.
But many migrants are at high risk of abuse, the groups said. Domestic workers are excluded from basic labor protections such as a weekly rest day and limits to working hours. Many migrants have limited information about their rights and face abuses such as deception about their jobs, heavy debt burdens from excessive recruitment fees, unpaid wages, and hazardous work conditions. Limited access to redress means that some get trapped in situations of forced labor and trafficking.
Find out more here: http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/asiamiddle-east-increase-protections-for-migrant-workers?
On 28 March, Hong Kong’s court of appeal overturned a previous landmark ruling that had opened the door for thousands of foreign maids to claim residence in Hong Kong.
The lawyers of Evangeline Vallejos, who had brought the case to court, said they would take the case — the first of its kind in Asia — all the way to the Court of Final Appeal, Hong Kong’s highest court.
“The interpretation of the law creates a second-class citizen,” counsel Mark Daly told AFP. ”We will continue on to the Court of Final Appeal until we get justice.”
Rights advocates said the ruling sent the wrong message to other Asian nations that relied on poorly paid maids from less wealthy countries to toil at jobs locals no longer wanted to do. Hong Kong has around 300,000 foreign domestic helpers mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines.
For a decade activists are campaigning for better working conditions for the more than 200,000 foreign domestic workers in Singapore. Now the government of the city state has decided that they must get a weekly day off from 1 January 2013. Transient Workers Count Too, a non-government organisation at the forefront of campaigning welcomed the move. However, the group urged the government to consider applying the new legislation to all domestic workers as the provision is limited only to those whose work permits are renewed or issued after January 2013. “Otherwise, there will be quite a significant population of domestic workers who will have to wait for a considerable amount of time before they have access to this basic labour right,” said the group’s speaker Noorashikin Abdul Rahman. In Hong Kong foreign domestic workers already enjoy a rest day each week.
In Oct 2011, Hong Kong’s High Court has ruled that a domestic worker from the Philippines should be allowed to apply for permanent residency in the city.
The case was brought by Evangeline Banao Vallejos, who has worked for the same Hong Kong employer for more than 25 years. Until now, foreigners could apply for permanent residence after living legally in Hong Kong for 7 years; however, this did not apply to domestic workers.
The ruling could lead to many migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong (estimates speak of 300.000 people, of whom around 1.000 have been living in HK for more than 7 years) winning rights to residency.
You can listen to a short radio feature by Banyar Kong Janoi (Asia Calling) on why the case is so import to the lives of thousands of people here (radio1812 website).
The New York Times reports on the struggle to protect domestic workers, an overlooked group of 100 million people, many of them female migrant workers. Some progress has been made since an international treaty to protect domestic workers was signed in June 2011: a Hong Kong Court struck down a law that excluded domestic workers from residency rights, and regions and countries around the globe pass laws to establish the vital principles of the convention which human rights campaigners call a “watershed”. However, many migrant workers servicing in the households of the rich are still suffering from violence, abuse and exploitation.
