A few interesting developments on the labour front. On the positive side,

Bangladesh government finally is being proactive about the pitiful condition of our migrant workers in the middle east. In that regard, a MOU has been struck to ensure better working condition for the workers in the UAE.

Here is the detail.

Can we see similar initiatives in Saudi Arabia as well? If you are not aware of what’s going on in the Saudis, take a read here. The findings are horrific.

To cite only a few examples, we interviewed migrant workers from Bangladesh who were forced to work ten to twelve hours a day, and sometimes throughout the night without overtime pay, repairing underground water pipes for the municipality of Tabuk. They were not paid salaries for the first two months and had to borrow money from compatriots to purchase food. An Indian migrant said that he was was paid $133 a month for working an average of sixteen hours daily in Ha’il. A migrant from the Philippines said that he worked sixteen to eighteen hours a day at a restaurant in Hofuf, leaving him so exhausted that, he told us, he “felt mentally retarded.” The employer of a migrant from Bangladesh, who worked as a butcher in Dammam, forced him to leave the kingdom with six months of his salary unpaid.

The answer lies, not in having more committees. But on the acknowledgement from the kingdom about these abuses and taking proactive steps in addressing them as recemmended here

This brings in the question of what we, the average citizens, can do about this? The issue of the migrant workers has been unaddressed for a long time. Documentaries have been made, HRW reports have been published but nothing much has changed.

We, at Drishtipat, have been thinking about whether we can do a project surrounding this and would like to get your input on how we can add the most value to the process. Several ideas have been discussed. Among them:

1. Handing out a book at the airport making them aware of their rights and offering them key contact numbers at the country they are going to.
2. Offering to make final calls to their would be employers and confirm that the workers are not stranded at the foreign airports (which is by the way quite a common case)
3. Highlighing issues of abuse and working with the arab media for awareness and lobbying with the governments to take more pro-active stand on these issues.
4. Highlight proactive, resourceful embassies and name and shame the ones that do not do their job in helping to protect our citizens.

You can help here in two ways for now.

A. By offering us suggestions on the above.
B. By doing some google research and posting as a comment links for any relevent articles or cases of abuse you can find in the net. Look at newspapers like Gulf Times and Arabnews as well.

Previously, Dr. Abdul Momen sent us some pictures and stories which we highlighted here.

While we highlight this news of our foreign employers, let us spare a thought for 20 year old Asma, the garment worker, who got shot demanding her unpaid salaries in front of her factory in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association found that about 30 per cent of more than 4,100 garment factories had not complied with the agreement in terms of implementation of the new minimum wage fixed at Tk 1,662.50. The association leaders disclosed the figure at the meeting