By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Aug 26 2002 (IPS)

A stirring call from a former migrant worker from the Philippines, pleading for action and not “just talk” to protect female labourers from abuse, marked the opening of an Asian summit on foreign migrant domestic workers here Monday.

“I am very frustrated. I have gone to many conferences but it has been talk and recommendations,” said Josephina Bumanglag, a representative of the domestic worker community.

“Governments have made promises, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have made promises — all of which have been false promises,” she added.

Speaking at the opening of the three-day summit organised by the Malaysia-based Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility – Asia (CARAM Asia), which works on migration issues, Bumanglag said many domestic workers have died in their workplaces or in detention camps waiting for solutions to their problems, but few seem to know or care about this.

“How many more will die till solutions are found to their problems? Please, no more promises. We need concrete solutions, now,” said Bumanglag, hammering home her simple message before an audience of government officials, U. N. officials, aid workers, NGOs, trade unions and migrant workers themselves.

The meeting brings together officials and workers from nations across South-east Asia, South Asia, the Persian Gulf nations, the Middle East and some north Asian countries.

The Colombo meeting is aimed at understanding the current status of foreign migrant domestic workers and defining emerging issues in order to increase protection to reduce various forms of vulnerability, especially to HIV/AIDS.

On Monday, speakers accused host countries of not wanting migrants’ cheap and convenient labour but not acknowledging, much less respecting, their human rights. They spoke of abuse, harassment in their areas of work, and a multitude of other social problems back home.

“They are marginalised and the least informed group,” Irene Fernandez, chairwoman of CARAM Asia, said of migrant domestic workers, who make up hundreds of thousands of domestic help in countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Yet they were “women of love because they leave behind their families to ensure a better (economic) future for them, and go to another country to care for another family”,” she added.

At Fernandez’s request, one minute of silence was observed in memory of domestic workers across the world that have died on the job.

The sombre mood stuck a chord in Colombo, where the body of a Sri Lankan domestic worker who died overseas last month under unexplained circumstances, arrived home in July, without some of her organs.

Somalatha Satharasinghe, 41, went to Kuwait as a domestic helper in May but returned in a coffin with parts of her brain missing along with other organs like the bladder, corneas and kidneys.

“What happened to Somalatha? Were her rights respected?” asked Fernandez, stressing that this was one of the issues where solutions needed to be found and not just accepted as risks that come with the job.

The CARAM chief, referring to growing criticism that conferences and summits are just talk shows, said: “This regional summit has a history of work at grassroots levels in more than 12 countries.”

“Through this effort we have been able to understand the lives (and issues) of migrant workers and their families. This is not a talk show but a move forward,” Fernandez said.

She said there was a need to build partnerships to understand the domestic worker, who often remains invisible and beyond the reach of laws while working in private homes.

At the same time, she praised the Bangladeshi government for deciding to lift a ban on women going abroad as domestic workers.

Fernandez said she was however concerned that India would impose an age limit of no more than 30 years for women to be eligible to go abroad as domestic workers, thinking that they would be safer from abuse.

“The perception is that women’s sexuality stops at 25 to 30 years and they are not pretty after that. To believe that a woman has lost her sexuality after 30 is wrong. That is just a male perspective,” she said.

Bumanglag, the migrant workers’ representative, said she worked as a domestic worker in Malaysia for eight years and was subjected to long working hours, washing clothes, cleaning, cooking and taking care of three children.

“My workday was 5 a.m. to 12 midnight but even the few hours of sleep I had was with the three children (in the same room),” she said.

The food was mostly leftovers while the employer was strict and often wanted her to clean up the house or iron the clothes twice if she was not happy with the work. “I could not talk back fearing I would be sent back (home),” Bumanglag recalled.

Bumanglag said a domestic helper in the neighbouring house was repeatedly raped and suffered excessive bleeding. “There are many, many stories like this,” she added.

But despite the risks, Sri Lankan Labour and Employment Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said scores of women in the country were looking abroad for work as the unemployment rate was still very high.

“The official unemployment rate measured by the Central Bank is 7.5 percent of a total workforce of 6.7 million people here, but we believe in some areas in the south and the north it is as high as 50 percent,” he said.

Migrant labour, whose remittances are the highest net foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka, has thus been a boon to the economy. Samarasinghe said this sector has in fact cushioned the blows to the economy from the 19-year ethnic conflict

Excerpt: