International Migration and Labour Rights: Obligations, Challenges and Policy Options for Bangladesh

Abstract

International Migration is one of the most visible and influential features of globalization. The cross-border movements of a growing number of people around the world looking for better employment opportunities, decent lifestyles and to achieve the dreams of success for themselves and new generation open up opportunities and also pose challenges on societies and economies of both sending and receiving countries. Bangladesh is a huge human resource surplus country and its position is in the supply side of the world labor market. The official figures indicate that 1976 and 2006 about 43.00 million Bangladeshis have migrated for overseas employment. Every year around 250,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers migrate abroad and almost US$ 5.00 billion is being earned as remittance. Despite tremendous contribution of international migration of labor in overall socio-economic development of the country, migrant workers enjoy less facilities, rights and welfare benefits in home and their countries of employment. In fact, Bangladesh's approach to deal with international labor migration is ad hoc and unilateral. Therefore, Bangladeshi migrant workers often face discriminations, harassment, abuses, exploitations and other human rights curtailing situations due to having their legal protection by international instruments.. But there is a near consensus international migration cannot be managed and their rights cannot be ensured if both sending and receiving states deal with it within a common and cooperative framework. A numbers of such instruments do exist and active in protecting migrant workers' rights. The 1990 UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICMW) is the most comprehensive instrument termed as the 'Magna Carta' of migrant workers' rights. Similarly, ILO Convention Nos.97 and 143 are also significant for ensuring the equality of treatment and opportunity and to prevent migrant workers from abusive conditions. Nevertheless, Bangladesh and none of its major labor receiving countries has yet to ratify these migrants' rights Conventions. Therefore, Bangladeshi migrant workers are not entitled to enjoy the rights and facilities out of these international instruments. The study tried to make a linkage between international migration and human rights of migrant workers in Bangladesh and their countries of employment. It also identified the challenges of migrant worker's rights in practice guaranteed in these international and national instruments through examining the ground reality to explore policy options for Bangladesh. Towards this end, the study collected information from 100 returnee migrant workers those who worked in the six countries - The Kingdom Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirate (UAE), Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea for assessing the compliances and violations of labor and human rights recognized in international human rights laws for migrant workers especially recognized in ICMW and ILO Convention Nos. 97 and 143. In addition, key government functionaries, representatives of private recruiting agencies, international organizations, policy entrepreneurs, migration experts, migrant workers organizations, migrant rights activists, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) etc. were also interviewed for this purpose. The study further examined migrant workers' situations with special reference to their rights, facilities and welfare in three stages­pre-departure, post arrival and post return with the parameters set in the light of rights and obligations provided in the ICMW, ILO Convention Nos. 97 and 143. Regarding educational qualifications the study revealed that most of the respondents (53 per cent) completed their education up to primary level. They were mostly unskilled and semi-skilled and were engaged in the jobs '3-0' (dirty, dangerous and difficult) in nature which the native workers refused to perform. It also expressed that the hard-core poor cannot go for overseas employment since they cannot afford/manage the high migration cost. About access to information of overseas employment, 69 per cent workers stated that they received information either from recruiting agents or their middlemen where there were widespread complains of taking exorbitant fees and fraudulent practices against them. In recent years, the global economy has witnessed an increasing feminization of migration, where Bangladesh has lost the pace. In Bangladesh, female migrants represent only 6 per cent of the migrant workers. And surprisingly most of the respondents were not in favor of sending female for foreign employment due to lack of sufficient protection in their countries of employment. Actually they were not against female migration rather they were in favor of ensuring their rights and protections in the whole migration process. Another important finding of the study was that the government has no any credit facility for the migrant workers foe meeting their migration cost and also for their reintegration. The migrant workers were mostly dependent on informal moneylenders with high rates of interest in managing the cost of migration. About functions of private recruiting agencies, 58 per cent respondents opined that the private recruiting agencies were not functioning properly. In the post arrival phase, compliances of migrant workers' rights were assessed in the four broad categories: (i) right at work; (ii) right to freedom of association; (iii) social and cultural rights; and (iv) right to safe return. About formal letter of employment, there were irregularities and harassment and 29 per cent respondents stated that they did not get any formal letter of employment. In many cases, the migrant workers were forced to do additional work but without additional wages. The migrant workers work related facilities such weekly rest, holidays with pay, over time benefits etc. were squeezed in many work places. In this regard, legal redress arrangements were inadequate and sufferer migrants did not interested to go for legal redress for fear of losing their jobs. Big companies and formal sectors provide accommodations to their employees in labor camps in the outskirts of the cities but from 5 to 20 co-workers shared the same room together. These labor camps were mostly provided with inadequate basic amenities. The findings of the study revealed that most of the migrants were satisfied with working environment though some factories lack of adequate safety measures even fire extinguisher. Eighty-seven respondents stated that they did not have any opportunity to change their jobs for better options. Similarly, 89 per cent workers spoke of lacking job-training facilities. There were incidents of abuses, harassment and forced labor and these problems were widespread in cases of domestic aides in the Middle East. About payment of wages/ salary 33 per cent workers complained of delay payment where 39 per cent experienced lag period system in getting their payment. The case of deportation was low found in the study. A small number of workers were deported due to irregularities in visa processing, overstay and so on. But many innocent regular migrant workers often harassed during crackdown in Malaysia for arresting undocumented migrant workers. The study also shows that hundi system is still popular among migrant workers in transferring their earnings though the rate has been reduced over the couple of years to a large extent.