A panel discussion on the Objective 6 of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) was jointly organized by Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT), Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA),Cross-Regional Centre for Refugee and Migration (CCRM) and Civil Society Action Committee (CSAC), on 6 October 2020, with the aim of enabling a dialogue on ‘Facilitating Fair and Ethical Recruitment and Safeguard Conditions that Ensure Decent Work’, by bringing together various experts on labour migration and related issues.
No Decent Work without Right Recruitment
The moderator, Ms. Roula Hamati, who is the coordinator at the Cross Regional Center for Refugees and Migrants, Lebanon, initiated the conversation by asking the first speaker, Mr. Shabari Nair, Labour Migration Specialist for South Asia, ILO, to reflect on the critical discussions about decent work in GCM meetings. Mr. Nair pointed that in order to ensure decent work for migrants, there is an immediate need to look into the largely inhuman recruitment systems in place.
“Recruitment has changed from being a demand-driven system to a supply-driven system. Today, it’s like an auction where the workers are sold to the lowest bidder and for which the workers themselves have to pay”: Mr. Shabari Nair
While the demand for migrant workers have increased in the Gulf countries and other regions, the number of potential workers has increased exponentially as well. This presents employers with the opportunity to direct the recruitment according to their benefits and the workers have no option but to comply.
The reason why objective 6 is so important is that it is the only objective in GCM which specifically mentions ‘decent work’ in the title. Mr. Nair highlights that fair recruitment cannot be isolated from decent work at home. The inability to create jobs at home forces workers to go abroad, creating an imbalance between supply and demand. In many South Asian countries, over 90% of workers are in informal economy and it is imperative to ensure fair recruitment at home as the first step in actualizing decent work conditions.
Victimization of Women
Ms. Jean D’ Cunha, UN Women’s Senior Global Advisor on International Migration, emphasized the gender aspect of labour migration. Women are subjected to gross inequalities and discriminatory gender stereotypes, and relegated to the domestic spaces. Their work in these spaces is poorly valued, both at home and abroad. The lack of access to education and information leaves them vulnerable to unscrupulous recruiting agents and traffickers. With no or fewer assets than men, they get trapped in debt bondage. Ms. D’Cunha highlighted how the Kafala system heightens dependency and forced labourby tying a woman to a particular employer who often confiscates her travel and identity documents. The risk of being turned undocumented, followed by arrest, detention and deportation without any access to justice, traps migrant worker in abusive work conditions.
Role of Private Sector and Corporate Globalization
The role of private sector in ensuring fair and ethical recruitment is often not focused upon, according to Mr. Philip Hunter, the Head of Labour Migration Unit, IOM. Mr. Hunter said that many of the leading companies have become comfortable over the years in discussing about issues related to labour migration, including fair recruitment. The global commitments made by these companies often predate adoption of GCM, but more efforts are required to translate them to practice. Most industries are still completely absent from conversations about supply chain strategies and approaches. Also, companies producing for local markets are often completely absent from the private sector strategies and approaches, which Mr. Hunter marks as a big gap in ensuring compliance to internationally accepted norms
The governments are still lagging behind in looking at the role of labour attaches and inspectorates in recruitment systems. Mr. Hunter points out that the General Principles and Operational Guidelines for Fair Recruitment prepared by ILO and the Montreal Recommendations on Recruitment from IOM can be used to push governments into tackling these issues.
The role of corporate globalization in aggravating the crisis was emphasized upon by Ms. Shalmali Guttal, Executive Director, Focus on the Global South, who stated that we are failing to address the larger structural issues related to migration while bringing them to the policy documents.
“The paradigm (of corporate globalization) has failed us in creating jobs and instead we have recurring economic crises and the expansion of environmental destruction and land grabbing. This has led to increasing poverty and deprivation, and has created a huge mass of workers in the informal sector”: Ms. Shalmali Guttal
For instance, workers in Cambodia and south-east Asia are burdened with huge debts as they are forced to work with flexible labour contracts. This pushes most of them to resort to additional informal work.
Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the recovery packages by the governments seem to benefit only the big corporations and businesses by ensuring that they have adequate capital and labour supply. It is alarming that labour laws have been relaxed across Asia so that the capitalists can recuperate and regain their profits. Meanwhile, the health of workers is risked as they are forced to work in dangerous conditions. Ms. Guttal also brought to notice that their debts have also been increasing as the relief packages aren’t reaching them.
Policies Redundant without Ratification
For Mr. Patrick A. Taran, President of the Global Migration Policy Associates, the rights of the migrant workers are either deliberately denied or they are not enforced, and kept confined to documents only. This is evident from the lack of data on the deaths of migrant workers. For instance, about 2000-3000 workers die every year in the Middle-East. In countries like Canada and Czech Republic, injured migrant workers are sent back home to avoid any responsibility.
“There is a clear absence of human rights here and the challenge is to put in place in every country, the domestic ratification and implementation of international labour standards and basic human rights protections outlined in the fundamental UN conventions under the rule of law”: Mr. Patrick A. Taran
The role of greater awareness in ensuring the rights of migrant workers was highlighted by Ms. Myrtle Witbooi, President of International Domestic Workers Federation, who reminded about the importance of keeping alive the voice of the migrants by supporting organizations that connect at grass root level and work tirelessly to ensure their voice is not lost amidst corporate interests and unratified documents. Ms. Witbooi considers education to be the need of the hour in ensuring that migrant workers have better access to the documents related to them and can understand their rights properly.
Parting remarks
The enriching talk by the panelists invited a diverse range of questions related to recruitment and working conditions of migrants. It was strongly emphasized by the panelists that though the Objective 6 has empowered migrant employees, it does not cover all the issues. They agreed that a greater stress on gender equality with regards to issues like sexual and reproductive rights needs to be adopted. It was further stated that the non-binding nature of GCM is stifling migrants’ rights. Big corporations and businesses should be subjected to legally enforceable regulations so that they stop earning profits by exploiting the workers. Finally, issues like discrimination on the basis of class, religion, caste, gender and race have to be addressed and the public realm needs to be transformed to a safe space for the migrant workers. Otherwise, any struggle for the rights of migrant workers will end in futility.
Subhadip Mukherjee, he is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in English at the University of Delhi. His interest areas include Postcolonial studies, Transnationalism, Cosmopolitanism, Diaspora literature, Literary theory, Indian writing in English and Climate fiction. Twitter ID:@SubhadipMuk.