South Asian migrant workers play key role

South Asia is a major labour exporting region. There are five million transient South Asian workers in the Middle East, who play a key role in transmitting remittances to the region. Migration and the resulting remittances play a fairly large role in the economies of South Asia. Remittances make a large contribution to the level of GDP in these countries and stimulate many macro and micro-economic benefits, Institute of Policy Studies Sri Lanka Executive Director Dr Saman Kelegama said.

Colombo’s South Asia Migration Commission plans a solid framework that will encompass all aspects of Asian migration and related matters, he said at the second conference on the South Asian Migration Commission held recently.

Ensuring the personal safety of these labourers is a key obstacle that South Asian countries have to face when developing the migration policy framework. The reality is that there is asymmetry with the destination country having more power to control and regulate the worker than the country of origin, he said.

This factor needs to be accommodated in any framework that is designed to govern migration.

Individual countries could develop an overall policy framework to govern migration as, for instance, the Philippines has done but it is more effective to develop the framework regionally.

The concept of creating a commission to oversee migration and enhance its positive aspects has far-reaching benefits. The countries of the East Asian region have already adopted this approach and the South Asian framework can be modelled after it.

The ASEAN Migration Workers’ Connection takes a very serious approach to protecting workers’ rights and combating a ‘decent work deficit’ when workers face inadequate social protection and shortcomings in social dialogue (www.workersconnection.org). The South Asian countries may also consider such a stance for migration protection and addressing it by way of a united commission may provide the necessary solution as seen in the case of ASEAN, he said.

There is a growing consensus on the role of international instruments on migrant workers as a solid foundation for migration policies and practice in South Asia.

-SJ