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LABOUR: Abuse, Alienation Daily Fare for Women Migrants

Prime Sarmiento*

MANILA, Sep 25 2008 (IPS) - Sexual abuse, harassment, poor living conditions and disconnection with their families and own cultures – these are real-life stories that Sharu Joshi Shrestha hears from many Nepali, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan women migrants who come to her office each day.

Shrestha, a regional programme officer for migration at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), knows that such stories abuse will not stop women from poor countries from seeking better lives.

“Money speaks. Remittance has power. It attracts migrant workers and their families despite the risks and other challenges of working overseas,” the Kathmandu-based Shrestha said at the International Conference on Gender, Migration and Development underway here from Sep. 25-26.

The conference is being organised by three United Nations agencies – UNIFEM, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the International Labour Organisation – the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, and non-government groups Migrant Forum of Asia and the Women and Gender Institute of Miriam College in the Philippines.

There are nearly 200 million women migrant workers around the world, most of whom come from Asia, Africa and South America. Lack of job opportunities at home and their dreams of providing a more comfortable life for their families force them to be domestic workers, seafarers, factory workers and caregivers.

The remittances they send home help their households as well as the economies of their home countries. This is the case with the Philippines, one of the world’s biggest labour exporters, where remittances from overseas workers have sustained its economic growth for the past 30 years. Last year alone, overseas Filipino workers remitted about 13 billion US dollars.

But these economic benefits come at a steep social cost, according to participants at the conference here, which focuses on the gender perspective of international migration ahead of the Second Global Forum of Migration and Development to be held in October, also in Manila.

Women migrant workers, who make up most of the world’s migrants, can suffer from physical, economic and mental abuses. Some have been raped and beaten up, others have employers who do not pay the promised salaries, lock them up or forbid them from communicating with their families.

Compounding the problem is the fact that most of these women – often ignorant of their rights and unsure of how the legal system works in their host countries – may prefer silence to filing a complaint against their employers.

“These women will only file a complaint to the police if they have support from social workers or non-government organisations (NGOs),” said Farida Raif, Middle East and North Africa researcher for Women’s Rights at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Sometimes, even the agencies supposed to be supporting migrant workers are ineffective in dealing with their problems.

For instance, abused women usually run to health centres to seek help but might be turned away by health professionals who are ill-trained to handle these cases, or do not report these abuses to authorities.

Shelters do not always offer long-term trauma counselling, and NGOs may ignore the plight of migrant women at their work. “Women’s rights activists often don’t include concerns of women migrant workers in their mandate,” Farida pointed out.

But it is not only the women migrant workers themselves who suffer when they have problems in their host countries. The children and husbands they leave behind face abandonment, emotional insecurity and financial dependence.

And often, migrants’ children say they prefer to have a complete family, despite the economic benefits. “These children say parents are more important than material things,” said Edelweiss Silan, regional cross-border project coordinator of Save the Children.

“Listening to and understanding them is a big thing for the children left behind,” explained renowned Filipino psychologist Maria Lourdes Carandang, who proposed that teachers be trained to counsel their students.

Jean D’Cunha, UNIFEM programme director for East and South-east Asia, says it is time to look at how to address the migration tide from home. She proposes that the governments of migrant-sending countries review their trade and economic policies, and assess how these impoverished women are driven to seek work abroad.

“There is a need to protect the rights of women migrant workers not only because they are human beings, but also because they make this contribution to the economy,” D’Cunha said at a press conference, here, on Thursday. “They should be protected by virtue of policy programmes and legislation in their own countries.”

The experts here all recognise that women will continue to seek work abroad as long as they need it and as long as there is a demand for domestic and other work they provide.

But, against this backdrop, governments must do more to educate migrant women about their rights, including using such means as setting up shelters in host countries. Governments can also provide training to women workers to enhance skills and employment options, adds D’Cunha.

(*This feature was produced by IPS Asia-Pacific under a series on gender and development, with the support of UNIFEM East and South-east Asia Regional Office.)