An important work

[Bhaskar]

As globalization takes root, economies based on rural, subsistence agriculture are gradually being replaced by urban, industrial and service economies. This process of economic transformation coupled with demographic dynamics has generated migration flows into urban areas within Asian countries and abroad, especially in South Asia where urbanization rates are still low. According to an ILO study, from 2000 to 2010, the number of migrants from South Asia has more than doubled.

‘Uncertain Journeys: Labour Migration from South Asia’ wonderfully documents the price people pay to earn a respected livelihood, as well as the joy and pain of distance employment. With the help of a dozen essays, it takes us on a journey in the arena of migrant labor from South Asia. The book is a study of immigrant laborers as human beings, and not remittance machines for the family or foreign-exchange earners for the home country.

Edited by AS Panneerselvan ,Executive Director of Panos South Asia and Readers‘ Editor of ‘The Hindu’, eleven journalists discover the survival realism of migrant workers from South Asia—their aspirations, fears and dreams; how global forces determine their freedom; how they navigate the policies that attempt to regulate their lives; and their hopes for a better future which carry them through years of inexorable toil. The essays in the volume are split into three categories: People, Places, and Policies.

The lives of migrant workers of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka who work long hours in unsafe situations across the Middle East and Southeast Asia are dealt with vividly in the book. The horrifying stories of men and women suffering forced labor, abuse and incarceration are captured in greater details. To the extent that, there is a blurred borderline between migration and human trafficking, the book questions whether human beings can be reduced to a mere commodity. Written with compassion, yet with a critical analysis of the stories being told, ‘Uncertain Journeys’ is an important contribution to the dialogue about labor migration in South Asia.

Panos South Asia (PSA), headquartered in Kathmandu, is part of Panos Institutes worldwide that encourages and facilitates public discourse and debate on a wide range of issues. PSA’s partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has resulted in a two-year Regional Project on South Asian Migrant Labour. PSA selected fifteen senior journalists from across South Asia for a fellowship. The fellowship produced more than 200 articles and broadcast stories, across thirty-four media outlets, and in seven languages — English, Urdu, Nepali, Bangla, Arabic, French, and Malayalam. This book contains a selection of those articles.

The countries researched from point of view of labor as a preferred destination from the South Asian countries are Malaysia, Singapore, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, and Qatar. While the treatment of migrant labor is equally bad in all the countries, in case of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries it is inhuman. It is both by policy design and by way of treatment by the employer. The condition of Emirati national interest outweighs the rights, dignity, and safety of individual employees, from top management to a contractual sweeper. Women are treated as ‘live in maids’ as per Kafala systems. Escaping abuse makes the worker illegal.

Around 67 million people work as domestic workers around the world. Almost 10 million work in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The growing demand for domestic services is considered to be one of the main triggers of the feminization of labor migration. In fact, domestic workers make up nearly 20 percent of all migrant workers in the ASEAN region. The vast majority of those, 83 percent, are women.

Rape, non-payment of dues, physical abuse are accepted as a given even by the migrant worker. But the cutting of limbs, burning different parts of the body as punishment is also accepted as normal. Rejimon Kuttapan while tracing the difficulties faced by migrant workers in GCC countries, wonders if he is documenting modern day slavery.

Saudi government rarely informs foreign embassies when a citizen is on death row, as required by the Vienna Convention on Consular relations. Sabrina Toppa in her essay ‘Pakistan’s Forgotten Workers on Death Row’ writes about the positive impact of Indian government sighting an example from 2017, while for Pakistan she writes: “Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs contends that it does not have bargaining power with Saudi Arabia to negotiate the release of its citizens.

The politicians who run the government in South Asia, with the probable exception of India, see the migrant worker as foreign exchange remitting machine. Their economy depends on these remittances and hence they do not want to upset the GCC countries. In her reportage, Bangladesh-based Journalist Porimol Palma says human beings have been reduced to commodities.

The 200-page paperback throws light also on the plight of Indians (essay by RK Radhakrishnan) stranded in Kuwait due to bankrupt employers and questions whether labor-sending countries should presuppose that their responsibilities to their citizens out of the country end with inward remittances.

‘Uncertain Journeys' is important work and documents the pain of migrant labor from South Asia. It reminds everyone that much needs to be done for migrant workers.