Slaves or Heroes?
JAKARTA The latest disconcerting report from Singapore has it that maids-for-hire were made to sit in employment agency windows so as to make it easier for potential employers to make their pick.
This measure, which was no doubt intended to be practical, has drawn criticism from some Singaporeans, who said it recalled the practice of prostitutes sitting in windows in the Netherlands or Russia to attract customers.
While this report from Singapore would seem to be the latest insult to our overseas workers -- mostly women working as maids who are "not accorded even basic human dignity", in the words of one Singaporean activist -- it merely reinforces the glaring fact that governments that send and receive migrants still have much to do to ensure the welfare and protection of the workers, even when it concerns citizens of neighbouring countries.
Indonesian women are among the 140,000 domestics working in Singaporean households, or about a third of the estimated 500,000 Indonesians working overseas, who contribute some 2.2 billion U.S. dollars in crucial foreign exchange to this country, according to last year's estimates.
Based on reports from other countries where our nationals work, such as in the Middle East, conditions in Singapore are better, since in the island-state justice is quick once the authorities learn that a worker has been abused. Nevertheless, a death toll of 89 Indonesian women workers in Singapore since 1999 is no cause for comfort, and calls into question the responsibility of all those involved in the sending and recruiting of the workers. (Jakarta Post Editorial, Aug 27, 2003 )
Bangladesh receives draft guideline for sending workers to Malaysia
DHAKA Bangladesh has received a draft guideline for sending workers to Malaysia over again, after more than five years of moratorium.
"We have received a draft guideline from Malaysia and are now working on it," Quamrul Islam, state minister for expatriate welfare and overseas employment, said on Aug. 20. The minister, who is striving to explore more and more foreign job markets, said that they were expecting to resume soon the export of manpower to Malaysia.
Earlier on Jul. 29, Malaysia withdrew the embargo on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers. It slapped the temporary ban in December 1996, citing various reasons.
"It's good news for our Bangladeshi workers as now they will be able to work in Malaysia," the minister said. However, he resented reports that some recruiting agencies were trying to blackmail people taking huge amounts of money for sending them to Malaysia.
Some formalities were yet to be followed up for sending workers to Malaysia, so nobody should contact any recruiting agencies or anyone else at this stage, he warned. (The Independent, Bangladesh)
Fewer Filipinos Get Overseas Jobs in 2003
MANILA The government is unlikely to achieve its goal of sending one million workers overseas in 2003 because it is still short of more than 400,000 jobs four months before the year ends.
The Department of Labour said on Aug 26 that it needs more than 100,000 jobs a month from September to December to meet its goal.
The daily deployment report of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said that as of Aug. 20 a total of 577,952 jobs overseas were provided to Filipino workers in the first eight months of this year, or 30,573 lower than the 608,525 who were deployed last year.
Labour Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas attributed the cut in the deployment of workers to the severe acute respiratory syndrome scare amid the U.S.-Iraq war.
The POEA administrator, Rosalinda Baldoz, meanwhile, warned overseas Filipino workers, especially those bound for Taiwan, against signing side agreements.
She said most of the workers who were victimised were forced to sign side agreements just a few hours before their scheduled flights. "These agreements are blatant violations of the Taiwan Council on Labor Affairs and POEA regulations on the deployment of overseas workers."
Victimised workers said some documents were written in Chinese without any English translation and that others were in the form of promissory notes, loan agreements, blank checks and even blank sheets of paper. (Manila Times)
Bodies of 100 Bangladeshi Workers in Saudi Morgues
RIYADH Nearly 100 bodies of Bangladeshi expatriate workers are lying in morgues in Saudi Arabia waiting to be sent back to Bangladesh for burial.
The Bangladesh government says it is helpless to either bury the bodies or repatriate them. Bodies of expatriate workers take considerable time before they are sent to the home countries. At times this delay is also because of lack of finances, and of local formalities also take considerable period of time.
The Somaishi Central Hospital in Riyadh alone houses 27 bodies of Bangladeshi workers, according to a list obtained by the Saudi daily Arab News.
Mohammed Ali Akbar, charge d'affaires at the Bangladesh Embassy, on Aug 8 said:
"These bodies have neither been repatriated nor buried locally for quite some time now because of the complex official formalities which have not been completed." Some of the bodies have been stranded in the morgues for six months or more, according to medical reports.
The Bangladesh government recently decided to fly back bodies of its citizen free of cost by the national airline, Biman. (Dawn, Pakistan)
Stricter Health Tests for Foreign Nationals in Oman
MUSCAT Close on the heels of easing visa formalities for tourists, the Sultanate's Ministry of Health has announced stringent medical fitness criteria for expatriates seeking employment or residency visa.
Expatriates from seven Asian countries - Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka - are required to obtain fitness certificates from authorised medical centres before applying for job or family-joining visas in any of the Gulf states.
"Applicants should be medically certified as free of physical disability and non-infectious diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, heart ailments, and other non-communicable diseases and physical disabilities,'' Dr Ali Dawood Hassan, adviser to the directorate general of Health Affairs and Superintendent of the Communicable Diseases Control Department, said in mid-July. (Khaleej Times)
Saudi Economist Hits Labour Discrimination
ABU DHABI An Arab economist has criticised Arab countries for discriminating against foreign workforce, describing the practice as "white slavery".
In a lecture in mid-July at Zayed International Centre for Coordination and Follow-up, Hussain Shubukshi, a Saudi economic expert, said the Arab region was in need of an urgent revision of its legal policies as regards the rights of foreign workers "who are suffering from discrimination as to wages, economic privileges and so on; privileges that are based on nationality, which is a form of "white slavery". (Khaleej Times)
