7/16/2020 Migrant workers coming home: To what? | The Daily Star Migrant workers in the Middle East often have to pay a hefty fee for the annual renewal of their contract, although this should have been done by their companies, in their own interest. Employers conveniently shift this burden onto workers. So what we're seeing now—workers summarily discharged or held in detention, and coming back home without their due wages and benefits—is nothing unexpected. These structural issues deepening the precarity of our workers have long been in place. Even appeals by the UN and other international organisations to stop deportation and illegal detention of workers are falling on deaf ears. The world of labour cannot "build back batter" without addressing these challenges. One major issue that needs immediate attention is wage theft. According to the ILO, losses incurred by migrant workers in terms of lost wages and non-payment of gratuity and other benefits during Covid-19 will be to the tune of billions of dollars. We cannot fight this alone. It requires a multilateral intervention involving labour-sending countries, host countries, international partners and other stakeholders. Central to addressing wage theft is dismantling the deeply exploitative kafala or "sponsorship" system. In this regard, Migrant Forum in Asia, along with four other international networks, have called upon countries of origin and destination to urgently create a transitional justice mechanism to address grievances, claims and labour disputes of repatriated workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. This gives us an idea of where to begin our work. For Bangladesh, given how the problems have persisted for years, it is time we adopt a proactive approach rather a reactive one. We have to mobilise other countries to work against forced repatriation of workers. We need to ensure employers do not get away with non-payment of due wages and benefits. For that, proper documentation at every stage of their movement is vital—both in destination countries and when they come back home. It should include all employment records of individual workers as well as records of the payments due. This database will be particularly useful in any drive for compensations for exploited workers. We need to explore new market opportunities as we go along, and once the oil price picks up, hopefully there will demand for labour again. Eventually, however, we have to accept that the ultimate solution to our overseas labour crisis lies in creating employment at home. This should be factored into our policy for workers coming back home.      https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/news/migrant-workers-coming-home-what-1922477 6/14