Point of view: Plight of Middle East workers

K. ARVIND

THE pathetic case of Rizana Nafeek is simply one tragic incident among many tens of thousands of what poor children of this land often are subject to when they go in search “of their pot of gold in Utopia.”

Our Muslim brethren here have great faith in the power and justice of their religious bond and brotherhood with their Arab brothers and one hopes this works in favour of Rizana.

The young girl, it appears from what one gathers from the Press, does not seem to have committed the deliberate killing of the baby. It is comforting to note men and women from all religions and races here have joined in processions and signed petitions to the Saudi Royalty to spare the life of young Rizana.

One hopes the Saudian Arabian King will bring relief and joy to a poor Muslim family in Sri Lanka and yield to the representations made to him by many hundreds on behalf this innocent girl.

Remittances from our Middle-east workers form a very important part of our national revenue and, therefore, it follows this section of our workforce must receive due consideration from our Government.

Sometime ago, I took up the case of these workers for (1) better wages (2) humane working hours and conditions (3) safety of our workers from constant physical abuse and domestic cruelty. Shockingly very little has happened since to bring relief or assurances from our authorities of safety to the nearly 800,000 of our hapless workers in the Arab lands.

Many of them continue to return pathetically - some in coffins, while others maimed for life; still others cheated of their emoluments; women raped, molested and sometimes abandoned with illegitimate babies.

It is explained in the traditions of the Arabland the employer owns every aspect of the “slave” - in this case our workers. What he does with the slave is his business and his business only - a rationale that is totally unacceptable in today’s world.

A number of Ministers and other high officials of the Labour Ministry visit the region claiming to attempt to bring relief and succour to these workers - some going with their children at State expense.

Our Embassies in the Middle-East - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Lebanon get increasingly larger number of “Diplomats” from Colombo claiming to effectively engage the growing miseries of our workers. But the position of these workers seem tto be worsening - rather than improving.

Therefore, the natural question is what are these diplomats doing - at this enormous expense to us? Does our system not have an audit of sorts to examine the cost of these diplomats and the benefits they bring to our workers?

Is Parliament kept informed of where these Ministers and officials are going, why, at what cost and have these been justified? Many of the workers who have returned I spoke to complain they get very little assistance from our embassies.

Some of them were very bitter that many officials in our embassies give them a thorough tongue-lashing “for inconveniencing them” with their miserable complaints.

It is becoming increasingly clear if the choice of manning these Embassies go by merit the situation could have been different in a welcome sort of way. But often religion is the deciding factor in these appointments and this, in no way, has improved the position of our workers or brought any desirable returns to the country.

Some of these workers complain often our diplomats take the side of the employer - even in cases where the Lankan workers complain against the illegal confiscation of their Passports on arrival at the place of work - a common feature.

The popular TV channel Al Jazeera beamed several programmes recently on the plight of workers from this part of Asia - the largest providers of these workers. It was chilling to see the inhuman treatment these workers are subject to in highly deplorable conditions of work.

It was reported in many cases wages due are not paid - creating serious problems to many of these workers who have trekked to the Middle East after taking loans etc at home to finance their journey.

Over 200 Indians have committed suicide in the Middle-east in recent times - almost all cases on account of employers refusing to pay the due salaries.

Last week the Indian government announced a list of defaulter-employers in the Construction industry in these countries who have refused to pay these workers per contractual obligations.

In the Al Jazeera programme it was shocking to see an Arab man and woman - representing employers there - exclaim insensitively “the salaries we pay these illiterate workers is several times more than what they get in their home countries.

That is why they desperately come here searching for jobs in our Arab lands” We agree our unemployed men and women go in search of jobs in the Gulf - unwillingly breaking their families, torn away from their little children and loved ones for years - all to earn sufficient resources to build a home and accumulate some savings as insurance to their later years.

This should not provide a potential employer as an opportunity to take advantage of their unfortunate plight and subject them to inhuman and cruel treatment, under-payment, inhuman hours and conditions of work.

Although we are quick to attack the governments in the UK, Western Europe, Australia, USA, Canada for the slightest reason, we cannot deny these countries maintain civilized and strict regulations of working hours, benefits including health insurance, minimum wages to our nationals working there.

They do not interfere with your personal documents like Passports. Neither do they treat you like slaves and abuse you physically - purely because your circumstances are unfortunate.

What have successive governments done to show that they have assured satisfactory working conditions, terms of payment, benefits to these workers? It was provoking to learn compensation arriving at millions of US$ - due to our workers suddenly evicted during the Iraqi armed invasion there - have been siphoned off by human sharks in official quarters.

I outline below a few suggestions - some of which I have made previously - and request the Ministry of Labour and the State body overseeing our workers in the Middle-East to give them expression early.

(1) Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines and other governments providing manpower resources to these countries to join together as a body and seek better minimum wages and working conditions in conjunction with the UN, ILO and other relevant bodies.

There is absolutely no reason at all why these governments should not agree to work out a formulae to get more reasonable wages and benefits for their nationals.

(2) Minimum wages be fixed specifically for Skilled/un-skilled workers as well as domestic workers. It is learnt while a Sri Lankan worker is manipulated - both by Agents here and their middle-east counter parts - to accept monthly payments of about US$150 a local equivalent gets close to US$ 2,000 per month.

(3) Working hours for workers to be 8 hours per day with 1 1/2 days holiday weekly - as practiced in the rest of the civilised world. Working hours for domestics to be about 10 hours daily with at least one day of the week off.

(4) Full/Health-Life Insurance to be provided by the employers during the currency of the employment contract.

(5) The Passport and personal documents of workers to be strictly in the possession of workers. Ideally, the act of forcibly taking over the Passport of workers to be made a punishable offence.

(6) Workers to have the freedom of changing jobs

(7) Workers to be Registered with our Embassy where the name and address of the employer is recorded. It should be made obligatory for employers to facilitate reasonable communication between the worker and our Embassy.

(8) Workers from the countries forming this Agreement not to be subject to stone-age punishments such as stoning to death, beheading, lashing etc.

(9) Government to provide loans for the purchase of air tickets to be recovered from their subsequent wages.

(10) Fees of Local Agent here to be paid according to Government- approved rates that should be fair by the Agents.

All this is not to say that the Labour Ministry and allied State bodies are not doing anything in the area of our workers in the Gulf region. I am aware there are training programmes and other facilities benefiting these men and women. Neither am I suggesting each and every worker is subject to cruel and unjust treatment there.

Admittedly, a fair number of them are reasonably satisfied both with their jobs, terms of contract and employers. Some of them go back to the Gulf - to their employers and places of work, which is quite satisfying.

In equal vein, there are a vast majority suffering and badly need the care, attention, the full force and influence of the Sri Lanka government when they are faced with injustice in the Arab lands where they are employed.

This is more so because officialdom in the countries concerned have a strange and unusual sense of justice compared with what obtains in other countries. I want to assure this is not a representation arising from prejudice.

The suffering of our nationals is there for all to see - for years. Who is doing what and to whom is also crystal clear.

All I want is fair pay, reasonable terms and benefit to my fellow Sri Lankans who are out there shedding their blood, sweat and tears to earn something legitimate to take home.

I hope the Press will add their own considerable weight in defense and support of Sri Lankans toiling in the Middle-East boosting our national coffer.