05/07/2021
Long Wait for Justice for Migrant Workers Affected by Wage Theft - Delhi Post
workers. In the Gulf Cooperation Council region, the workers who filed cases regarding
wage theft in UAE were primarily from four countries. These included a substantive 324
cases from India, 13 from Bangladesh, 9 from Nepal, and 11 from the Philippines.
Also Read : Migrant Workers and Childcare in Thailand and Myanmar
From India, the maximum number of wage theft cases were registered in UAE, accounting
for 51.9% of the total caseload, followed by Kuwait (27.1%) and KSA (20.6%). The report
states that a high number of undocumented cases of wage theft in Kuwait were Indian
males in the construction industry.
“For the period of January-May 2021, Indian migrant workers account for the highest
number of cases within the construction sector (595 out of 657). Moreover, out of 620 total
cases registered by Indian workers, maximum cases were reported from the construction
sector (595),” the study reads.
A gender analysis of wage theft cases concluded that female migrants in the care sector
were most affected. Apart from domestic work, female migrants in the field of hospitality,
sanitation, and salons, spas, etc, were reported as being affected by wage theft. “In many
cases, origin countries were willfully ignorant of ground realities of abuse that occurs at
their place of work, thereby dehumanizing the female migrant worker and removing her
from accessing her human and labour rights,” it read.
“There is a continued lack of access to justice mechanisms further revealed in this time of
crisis. Undeniably, there is a need for increased, proactive, bilateral multi-stakeholder
dialogue and collaboration to address such situations [of wage theft] underlined by the
data we all collect, which we have the responsibility to collect,” Nenette Motus, Regional
Director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Asia-Pacific, said.
The report in mention, ‘Crying Out For Justice: Wage Theft Against Migrant Workers
during Covid-19’, can be accessed here.
Labour Migration
MFA
Migrant Forum in Asia
Migrant Media
Migrant Workers
Pandemic
Wage theft
Priyali Dhingra
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