7/29/2020 The South Asian-Gulf migrant crisis - The Hindu COMMENT The South Asian-Gulf migrant crisis  S. Irudaya Rajan Ginu Zacharia Oommen JULY 29, 2020 00:15 IST UPDATED: JULY 29, 2020 02:00 IST The South Asian labour force forms the backbone of the Gulf economies, but has no social security protection or labour rights In early July, the Kerala High Court issued notice to the Central and State governments on a petition seeking to set up a mechanism to assist NRIs who had lost their jobs abroad and had returned to India, to seek due compensation. The petition was initiated by Lawyers Beyond Borders, an international network of legal experts. It seeks the court’s intervention to reclaim unpaid salaries, residual arrears, retirement benefits, and even compensation for relatives of migrant workers, who had died since the outbreak of COVID-19. The exposes the precarious conditions of migrant workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Employers, particularly construction companies, have used the crisis as an opportunity to retrench masses of migrant labourers without paying them wages or allowances. Living in misery https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-south-asian-gulf-migrant-crisis/article32215146.ece 1/5

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