Statistics Cannot Match the Tragedies
by Professor Ashish Bose
NO amount of migration statistics can bring out the trauma and tragedy facing women workers on the migration trail -- women who are driven by abject poverty to migrate not only to the nearest city, but to faraway countries in search of employment and become victims of unscrupulous recruiting agents, corrupt police and sex-hungry employers.
Economists, planners and policy-makers delight in flaunting statistics on remittances by emigrant workers which add to the precious foreign exchange reserves but how many of them care to visualise the human face of migration?
I was suffering from conference fatigue in Delhi and it was with some hesitation that I accepted an invitation from Inter Press Service Asia-Pacific to speak at a seminar on migration for Asian journalists in Bangkok (Feb 13-15, 2003), organised with the support of the Ford Foundation Philippines.
It was a rewarding experience but it left me somewhat shattered. The presentations by senior journalists and activists from NGOs portrayed with telling effect the stark reality of the migration drama.
The trauma facing men and women workers going to foreign lands with different languages, religions and culture; the cruelty and wickedness of the recruiting agents who have excellent networking with their counterparts all over Asia and the Gulf countries, thanks to the mobile phone; the lust of men; the increasing demand for sex in the name of "entertainment workers" (a common expresssion in Japan) and the utter helplessness of the migrant workers, especially in the domestic and informal sector, were brought out in one presentation after another. Add to that the growing risk of HIV/AIDS and the cup of misery is full.
There were heart-rending reports on migrant women fleeing from the aggressive military in Myanmar to the border areas of Thailand and finally to Bangkok, women from rural areas of Thailand going to Japan's entertainment industry, the migration of women domestic workers from Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Philippines all over the world, facing serious problems, especially in Gulf countries.
I was convinced that a new form of cross-border sex terrorism is overtaking Asian migrants. The terrorists are recruiting agents (both in the sending and receiving countries), employers who subject women workers to physical and mental assault, molestation and rape and police and local authorities who can be bribed into inaction.
Agencies like the International Labour Organisation (ILO) can do very little because the informal and domestic sector is outside the purview of their activities, in spite of the UN Convention on the "protection of the rights of migrant workers and their families".
I felt very uneasy when an Indian expert from UNIFEM in Bangkok told us that they were trying to convince the government of Nepal to relax the ban on the emigration of women domestic workers from Nepal to Gulf countries. I felt it would be a disaster and UNIFEM should be doing better things to empower women in Nepal. It may be noted that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have banned the emigration of women domestic workers though some women managed to go to Gulf countries from Bangkok only to return shattered.
There were frequent references to "illegal migration", an expression which was considered dehumanising. The recommended terms were "undocumented migrants" and "irregular migration". Such migration from Bangladesh to India also cropped up during the discussions. In my presentation, I steered clear of the politics of migration, as it would have derailed the seminar which was sharply focused on the plight of migrant Asian women and the growing threat of HIV/AIDS. However, there was a consensus that migration flows were governed primarily by political considerations.
(Excerpts from an article written by Professor Bose of the Jawarhalal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, which appeared on the Mar. 1, 2002 issue of 'Economic and Political Weekly', India's most prestigious academic publication.)
