India receives the highest amount of remittances in the
world, it received US $66.30 billion in the year
2014-15. It is one of the main reasons that India could survive the recession
that saw many big economies collapse. The biggest share we receive is from the
Gulf countries, where the majority of the
remittance comes from the low skilled or unskilled labor workers. Despite their
invaluable contributions to our country, many Indian migrant workers continue
to face exploitative working conditions, forced labor, non-payment of wages and other forms of human rights abuse that
sometimes plunge them into slavery-like conditions. Let’s take a look at the
hassles our working class employees faces,
- Deception by visa brokers and recruiting agents:
They are
victims of various forms of deception and trickery at the recruitment stage.
These include excess charges for visas and other travel documents, processing
of fake travel documents without informing the workers of their illegitimate
status, recruitment for non-existent jobs, misrepresenting the job and working
conditions, providing falsely inflated loans that lead to situations of bonded
labor. We have heard countless stories of migrant workers landing in the wrong
country and being stranded there, being jailed for having the wrong documents,
finding their salary or work conditions are not what they were promised. This
is compounded by:
- Lack of awareness of pre-departure training:
Lack of
authentic and timely information relating to overseas employment, recruitment
agencies and immigration procedures makes
workers dependent on intermediaries and vulnerable to exploitation. And,
- Lack of access to remedies:
The power
differential between workers and recruiting agents makes it difficult for
workers who face abuse to secure justice. Enforcement mechanisms are not strong
enough and complaints registered rarely lead to convictions.
These are some of the major problems that are faced by the working class
employees while they are going abroad.
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