7/10/2020
Covid-19 And Migrant Workers: The great wage robbery | The Daily Star
of their affliction. To their bewilderment, not only did the workers not receive a penny as
compensation for arbitrary termination, but they faced the loss of all outstanding dues as
well—wages, benefits and the like.
Taking advantage of their governments' plans to send workers back to their countries of
origin, the employers who could still manage to run their enterprises are terminating the
contracts of migrant workers. Covid-19 for them is a God-sent opportunity to rob the
workers of the huge sums of money that they are owed. A huge number of cases were
reported where months of due wages and benefits have been withheld.
Employers in destination countries know quite well the iron grip they command over the
market. They are also aware that if they require the services of migrant workers in future,
their own governments would have no issues in granting them work permits. Yet again,
the recruiting agencies at both ends would work in unison to get big cuts from the
exorbitant costs of the new visas that they would sell to aspirant migrants as manna from
heaven, and the authorities in the countries of origin would be too keen to see one more
worker go abroad, with the anticipation of an additional amount, however small, in the
flow of much coveted remittances, deemed as an important indicator of national
development.
The relatively well off migrants also appear to be sinking into hardship. Migrant workers
who over the years acquired specialised skills and graduated to become independent
contractors, have also been adversely affected. With the stagnation in economic activities,
they are worried about recouping the amounts spent for work that has already been
completed.
The conditions of long term enterprising labour migrants who managed to mature
through the ranks and subsequently become co-owners of enterprises, such as tailoring
shops, motor garages and convenience stores, are no better. They are worried that the
hardline policies (of sending back migrants to their countries of origin) may act as an
inducement to their Arab partners (in whose names the enterprises are registered) to
dump them. Needless to say, the legal regime of the Gulf and other Arab states do not
provide any protection to foreigners who make such investments. Despite prohibitions in
the law, this practice is largely abetted by the authorities, to the huge benefit of the noninvesting local partners. Covid-19 may have come as a boon to these rent-seekers,
allowing them to strip the entrepreneurial migrants of their de facto ownership.
Large scale return, deportation or repatriation of migrant workers during the times of
Covid-19 is a reality. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, more than 200,000 have been
sent back to their countries of origin in Asia. In all likelihood, the figure will "rise
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