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The five truths about the migrant workers crisis | Opinion - Hindustan Times

Written by Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey | New Delhi | Updated: July 20, 2020 9:37:32 am An interaction with around 200 migrant workers from Unnao, Sitapur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kushinagar and Saharanpur districts in UP, gives a picture very different from what the government has been claiming.

In the wake of migrant workers returning following the lockdown, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced on May 24 that his government will set up of a commission to create employment opportunities in the state. He said the commission will conduct skill mapping of migrant workers and provide them jobs and social security.

An interaction with around 200 migrant workers from Unnao, Sitapur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kushinagar and Saharanpur districts in UP, gives a picture very different from what the government has been claiming. Not one of the workers surveyed in these districts has been approached by the government for skill mapping or for providing them guidance for any kind of livelihood options in their home state. Only one of them had received monetary support of Rs 1,000 twice, though about half of them were provided with the 35-kg ration kit benefits promised to all the returning migrant workers. However, the cash benefit could be availed only by those who had used state-owned transport, which was near absent.

Most of the migrant workers had been employed by the construction industry in the National Capital Region, Haryana and Punjab. Some of them worked with plaster of paris and did marble masonry. Some were polishing marble in Telangana. Still others were tailors in Ahmedabad, or worked in hotels in Mumbai. A few had work in factories producing crockery, hosiery and clothes. The farthest anybody worked was in a zarda factory in Karnataka. The few women among the returnees worked as domestic workers or were employed in cloth factories in Ludhiana.

Only less than 10 per cent of them got to travel free by government transport. Most of them spent their own money to travel by various kinds of private vehicles, on buses, auto-rickshaws etc, often changing the vehicle at some place, and even walking part or full distance. For example, when the police would not let their vehicles cross the Delhi-UP border, they would walk up to Ghaziabad or even Aligarh, some along the railway tracks to avoid the police, and then hail a vehicle. Often, they travelled in groups so that costs could be shared. The amount a person spent on travel was upwards of Rs 2,000.

About 10 per cent of them were quarantined the quarantine centres were mostly neighbourhood schools for 14 days. Others were told to go home and voluntarily quarantine themselves inside their homes. Relatives of workers quarantined at most centres were asked to arrange food for their quarantined family member.

Three-fourths of these workers are young, below the age of 35 years and close to 70 per cent of them belonged to the Scheduled Castes. Only 13 per cent of the workers were from the general category, indicating that the most underprivileged in the society continues to be from the bottom-most segment of the Hindu caste order.

Most of the workers who have returned, especially those belonging to the SC community, do not own enough land to sustain their families while living in the village. However, they are also aware that in the coming year, and possibly even the next one, there will be no work for them at the places they had left in desperation. Hardly anybody got paid for the period of lockdown, despite the appeal by the prime minister. About 20 per cent of them also have payments worth more than 7.5 lakh in salaries and wages pending for work done earlier. Overall, the workers stare at a bleak future.

Even though the chief minister announced more than once that needy people will get ration even without a ration card, the fact is that the returnee migrant labourers who dont have ration cards or their names have been struck off from ration cards because they were not staying in their village, are neither getting the regular quota of ration nor the free quota made available during the coronavirus crisis period. Only a little more than 50 per cent of the migrant workers who have returned get their quota of ration. The situation with work under MGNREGA is worse. Less than a third of the people who have returned got work from one to 20 days. But only about a third of them had received payments.

Forgetting that workers have their own agency and rights over their lives, the chief minister had said that if states wanted to re-employ migrant workers they would have to take the UP governments permission. Prem, a native of Sitapur who had been working with his family of six adults in Ludhiana for the last 12 years, laughed at this statement. He said: It is not possible to start factories overnight or even in a few months or a year or two in UP. Our entire family works in factories and earns Rs 55,000 a month. Who will give us that sort of skilled work here? When we left we knew only agricultural work but now we know printing and other works. We will go back as there is no choice.

This article first appeared in the print edition on July 20 under the title Unkept promises to workers. Dhuru works with the National Alliance of Peoples Movements and Pandey, a Magsaysay awardee, is with Socialist Party (India). The writers would like to acknowledge the help of Vishal Kumar, Shivi Piplani and Rakesh in collection, compilation and verification of data.

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Unkept promises to workers - The Indian Express

Pacific states have been urged to ensure migrants can access basic healthcare and essential income support amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) say the situation of temporary seasonal workers is concerning.

In a statement, the UN agency said migrant workers risked slipping into situations of irregularity if they could not or did not wish to return to their home countries.

It said border closures, restrictions on departure and re-entry, expired working visas and loss of employment for many temporary visa holders across the Pacific had left many of them with limited access to alternative livelihood options, adequate food and shelter.

It said these also had implications on the workers' physical and mental health.

The World Bank has called for more jobs to be made available for women in New Zealand and Australia under their respective Pacific labour mobility schemes. Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Koroi Hawkins

The OHCHR said an estimated 330,000 Pacific-born people resided overseas with 2.7 million more temporary visa holders living in Australia and New Zealand.

Thomas Hunecke, the head of OHCHR in the Pacific, said his office continued to track human rights issues across the region.

Mr Hunecke said human rights-based responses to the health crisis were vital in ensuring all "migrants, regardless of their status, have access to basic social security such as healthcare and essential income support".

He said these should be an integral element of the pandemic response in the Pacific.

"In particular, we are concerned that the lack of inclusive income security measures means that many migrants and their families with little reserves would be hardest hit by unemployment and rising prices.

RSE workers from Samoa working in Bostock orchard, Hastings. Photo: RNZ / Anusha Bradley

Meawhile, the IOM Pacific Coordinator Pr Liljert said migrants had played a vital role in supporting countries during the Covid-19 crisis and that safe migration should be part of the recovery process.

Mr Liljert said this could be a potential solution for Pacific countries that received significant GDP contributions from remittances, but equally for countries of destination by filling critical labour market gaps including in essential services like food production.

"At the heart of addressing Covid-19 and building back better are policies and programmes that guarantee the health and safety of migrants, with inclusive public health responses and socioeconomic recovery packages."

Mr Hunecke said as the long process of protecting and rebuilding economies adversely affected by the pandemic got underway, there was a need for Pacific states to ensure their response effectively addressed the disproportionate impact the crisis had on people and communities who were already marginalized and vulnerable.

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UN agencies call for the protection of Pacific migrant workers - RNZ

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates The controversy surrounding cheap migrant labor in the oil-rich Gulf states has intensified during the coronavirus pandemic, amid reports of workers going without food and water and being deprived of pay.

"A massive issue not being discussed is that some of the (workers) are going home without their paid wages," Rothna Begum, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch told CNBC on Thursday. "This is thousands of dollars of wages that are not being paid because unscrupulous employers and agents realize this is an opportunity to allow workers to go home (to their home countries) without having to pay them."

Migrant workers are also being fired in their thousands. In the UAE alone, for example, more than 50,000 Pakistani workers have been laid off and repatriated, according to Pakistan's ambassador there. Workers from Pakistan make up 20% of the UAE's population.

Nationals from India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nigeria, among others, also make up the roughly 35 million-strong migrant workforce that's been crucial to every sector of the GCC economy.

Rights advocacy group Amnesty International said that the coronavirus pandemic had worsened conditions for many of these workers. The group cites salary delays and layoffs as a major risk plaguing the community right now, in addition to overcrowded living conditions, a lack of support, detentions and deportations, and problems with healthcare and sick pay.

Residents hang their laundry off the railing on their balconies at their apartment building, to disinfect them under sunlight, in the city of Dubai on May 17, 2020, during the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Karim Sahib | AFP | Getty Images

Some workers still in the UAE also say they have not been paid. More than a dozen foreign taxi drivers in Dubai, for instance, who spoke to CNBC over the course of 12 weeks,have told CNBC they were not paid during the emirate's coronavirus lockdown, and had to rely on friends and relatives for food and money.

If they tried to protest, the drivers said, their employers threatened to revoke their visas. "They are paying us zero money," one taxi driver, speaking anonymously out of fear of reprisal, said of his employer in late April. "But what will we do? If we say anything they will cancel our visa, send us back to Pakistan."

The UAE's Ministry of Human Resources did not reply to a request for comment.There is no region-wide body that oversees migrant labor.

Governments need to create mechanisms to ensure that workers are paid before they return to their home countries, Human Rights Watch's Begum said. So far, none of the GCC states have implemented this.

"Right now we're not seeing governments come through with that mechanism, so now we're seeing many of the (workers) going home destitute, potentially going back to debt, or even worse off than when they left the country," she said.

There also remains the problem of workers trapped in their host countries and unable to return home, with some having become undocumented before the pandemic who now fear arrest if they tried to leave, rights advocates said.

"They're still finding themselves destitute, they still need access to food, housing and health in particular, a lot of them are not coming forward because they're scared of authorities catching them as undocumented workers," Begum added.

She noted some good practices in place, however, including recent decisions by the UAE and Bahraini governments, among others, to extend visas to ensure workers are not becoming undocumented during the pandemic.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have also said that undocumented workers can still receive healthcare. But the problem remains that many workers are simply too afraid to get care, believing they will be arrested, revealing a "trust deficit" between workers and their host governments, Begum said.

As economies in the Gulf slowly reopen, some workers have hopes that things will get better. One Dubai taxi driver from Egypt, who had not returned home to see his family in more than two years, said that while he misses home, he knows his job prospects aren't good there. When asked how he managed without pay during Dubai's several weeks of strict lockdown, he replied: "It's only thanks to God."

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The Gulf's migrant workers are being exploited amid the coronavirus crisis, rights groups say - CNBC

On June 20, we celebrated World Refugee Day. This was an opportune time for us all to pay attention to the challenge of forced displacement today. Strikingly, the world is facing the largest forced displacement crisis since World War II, with nearly 80 million people having fled their countries because of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events that have seriously disturbed public order. All continents now face forced displacement crises, and migratory problems cross state and community boundaries.

Forced displacement has hit Latin American and Caribbean countries particularly hard, highlighting existing vulnerabilities such as increased levels of violence and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Latin America is now home to one of the largest forced displacement crises in the world. As of March 2020, more than 5 million Venezuelans were reportedly living outside of their country, with 4 million of them in other Latin American countries: Colombia (1.8 million), Peru (1 million), and Ecuador and Chile (for a total of 1 million).

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Since the beginning of the Venezuelan crisis, most Latin American nations have tried to accommodate these recent arrivals, providing migrants with basic education, emergency health care services and legal status. These neighboring countries have provided a global public good by hosting millions at the risk of overwhelming their services and systems. But how will these nations be able to withstand the pressure?

Hosting countries face the new challenge of integrating larger numbers of migrants and refugees while dealing with the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. When taking into account that more than 60% of Venezuelan migration in Latin American countries is irregular and targets the most vulnerable populations, this crisis is now becoming a question of public health and safety and, ultimately, of regional security. It is time for the international community to provide a collective response that matches the magnitude of the crisis.

A first step was taken on May 26, with the virtual livestreamed on YouTube pledging conference for Venezuelan refugees and migrants that helped raise $2.79 billion in total commitments. This included $653 million of grant funding for the Refugee and Migrant Response Plan, which is a United Nations appeal to largely address the emergency needs of the migrant population.

The situation in Latin America calls for enhanced international support across the humanitarian-development nexus. In other words, the response should address pressing immediate needs such as temporary shelter and emergency medical services as well as the medium and long-term imperative of economic and social development through institutions, resilient local systems and service delivery. This is precisely what Colombian President Ivan Duque called for when advocating the shift from emergency response to medium and long-term development and integration.

To help countries mitigate the impact of the crisis and charter a pathway to growth and stability, there are five development priorities to focus on.

First, new ways should be explored to provide regular status to refugees and migrants, including through targeted regularization or employment-based programs. There have been several efforts to provide regular status to recent refugees and migrants arriving from Venezuela.

Colombia, Peru and now Ecuador stand out for their ambitious regularization programs for hundreds of thousands of irregular refugees and migrants. Amid rising public anxieties over migration in some countries, it may become harder to implement such mass regularization programs or offer regular status to most who seek to enter. The approach followed by Colombia in providing regular status to those who have employment in specific sectors may provide another alternative. Similarly, Peru has been trying to regularize students in the countrys educational system another strategy that Colombia and Ecuador seem likely to adopt in the future and one that may prove more politically viable in some countries.

Yet these approaches risk leaving out the vast majority of recent refugees and migrants who do not attend school or work in the formal economy, or the families of those who do benefit from such measures. Policymakers should, therefore, be thinking about the medium and long-term effects where providing legal status to refugees and migrants would produce optimal labor market outcomes for themselves and the country overall. The details of implementation in each case will matter enormously, but there is room for reiterative efforts that focus on specific different groups over time.

Second, health care barriers should be tackled through clear policies on access and financing. Almost all countries in the region, at least in theory, offer emergency health care to immigrants regardless of regular status. Still, specific policies are often unclear, and measures are not always implemented effectively at the local level, which means that migrants often have difficulties accessing health care in practice. In countries where local and regional governments pay part of health-care costs, financial burden sharing is also often unclear, leading local hospitals to cover costs that may never get reimbursed.

Creating clear policies and procedures defining both the services offered and what amount of costs will be covered and by whom are critical. In some countries, such as Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica, where residents need to enroll in the health care system to be eligible for benefits, it is vital to find agile ways of ensuring that new immigrants can register and sometimes to find ways of covering the costs of their care.

Third, access to education should be improved through flexible enrollment practices and ongoing support. One of the most critical decisions of countries has been to offer primary and secondary education to all students regardless of their status. In some countries, this was already embedded in the constitution, but others have more recently adopted these measures.

This helps avoid a generation of young people growing up without education and supports receiving countries to take advantage of the potential human capital of immigrant children who will likely grow up in their territory. In many places, however, strict registration requirements involving documents that are difficult for migrants and refugees to obtain can prevent some from enrolling their children in school.

There is also an urgent need to work with schools on policies, procedures and curricula to facilitate the integration of Venezuelan children, who may face challenges adapting to their new schools and need additional support to develop critical skills (e.g., history, culture and other country-specific knowledge). In several countries, access to college, graduate education and trade schools is also restricted for those who do not have adequate documentation, which risks wasting the human capital of immigrant youth who aspire to enter professional and technical careers, including in fields that are in demand in their new countries.

Fourth, migrants skills should be unlocked to boost labor market integration and local economies. The majority of Venezuelan adults suitable for paid work in countries across the region were already working before COVID-19. In fact, more than 90% of Venezuelan migrants in Peru and 8 in 10 Venezuelan migrants in Colombia were employed before the pandemic. While recognizing that the labor markets of many countries in the region are characterized by a high degree of informality, care should be taken to ensure that immigrants do have pathways to better-paid and more stable employment in the formal economy and to avoid creating conditions where employers can pay immigrants less than the prevailing wage, to the detriment of both newcomer and native-born workers.

There is no more important determinant for long-term positive labor market outcomes than ensuring regular status, which helps immigrant workers improve their wages over time and also helps avoid unfair wage competition between native-born and Venezuelan workers. Refugees and migrants tend to be relatively well-educated, which means that there is a wealth of highly skilled human capital that could benefit receiving countries.

To effectively leverage this potential, countries will need to create agile ways for immigrants to get professional and technical degrees earned in their home countries validated and recognized by employers. Argentina has done this through provincial universities, which has allowed the country to encourage professionals to leave the capital and settle in other provinces where their skills are in demand. Creating expedited credential recognition pathways for applicants willing to settle in an area of the country where their skills are most needed could also help fill labor market gaps.

Fifth, constructive narratives about immigration should be developed to highlight opportunities while not ignoring its challenges. There is no question that the sudden outflow of 5 million Venezuelans constitutes a migration crisis, and one that host countries are keenly aware of. But this migration is also an opportunity for host countries, as illustrated by increased predictions by the World Bank of regional future economic growth as Venezuelan immigration drives labor market expansion.

Immigrants, when they have access to legal status, education, health care, financial services and pathways to validate their studies, tend to become net contributors to innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth over time. Several governments in the region have gone out of their way to maintain their focus on these long-term opportunities, even while dealing with the challenges that the sudden arrival of so many people creates for already overburdened public services. Policymakers require assistance to orient the public debate on migration by keeping an eye on the medium and long-term benefits (and designing policies to help attain them). Still, they must also acknowledge the real strains involved in dealing with sudden, large-scale inflows.

Multilateral support will be critical in helping countries in the region meet these policy challenges. While migration from Venezuela holds the potential to enhance economic growth in the long term, it is also creating real and tangible short-term costs for already overburdened schools, hospitals and infrastructure. Multilateral support can help countries of the region overcome these challenges and reap immigrations benefits.

This requires moving from emergency responses to long-term development and integration. While there is still a critical need for emergency services for recently-arrived migrants from Venezuela, as crises in these countries stretch on, it is also important to plan for the medium and the long term. The most important question in the future will be how to support inclusive development that can help host communities and immigrants build connections and improve their livelihoods together. Enhancing access to and quality of schools, health care facilities, housing and urban infrastructure in areas where migrants settle is vital. This is the key to successful integration and also an opportunity to turn a migration crisis into a net benefit for host societies.

While there is some need for temporary shelter and emergency medical services that international actors could help meet, the greatest needs for support have to do with building local capacity for integration and service provision both to new arrivals and long-time residents. For this, multilateral organizations like the World Bank should continue to be actively engaged in helping better manage the forced displacement crisis, in support of its mission to reduce poverty and contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

*[The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work.]

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observers editorial policy.

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Hosting Refugees and Migrants Is a Global Public Good - Fair Observer