Images: Choo Meng Foo
Human beings are not goods or capital; they have rights, which states are obliged to respect and protect under all circumstances.
Missing his family already.
In recent years, scrutiny of business conduct in recruiting migrant workers has increased, with major international human rights organisations publishing reports about the workers’ vulnerability in countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Civil society organisations have run campaigns targeting high-profile projects that are dependent on migrant labour. Labour-exporting countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh have set up government departments and ministries to oversee the welfare of their citizens who work abroad. Forward-thinking employers are aware of the situation, and they wish to eliminate practices that are unconscionable or sometimes violate the law. Increasingly businesses are realising the need to extend due diligence regarding business rights further into their supply chains beyond their immediate, or tier one suppliers, to ensure that conduct is proper and rights are protected. Lack of scrutiny of these relationships can negate many of the efforts companies are making around better practice generally. A worker in a situation of debt bondage engendered by an unregulated recruitment process is being exploited and is vulnerable to further abuse even if their subsequent employment conforms to expected codes. The benefits of remittances to both the worker and country of origin are also seriously eroded by exploitation of migrants at all stages of the employment cycle. At the Institute for Human Rights and Business, we have initiated a multi-year process with leading employers, workers’ organisations, migrants’ rights organisations, academics, lawyers, and governments, to develop the Dhaka Principles for Migration with Dignity. The underlying idea is based on the recognition that migrant workers remain among the most exploited workforce
globally due to widespread irresponsible practices during both their recruitment and subsequent employment. Leadership from the private sector in cooperation with government and civil society could dramatically improve standards of worker protection. Our Business and Migration programme engaged the private sector and other critical stakeholders with the aim of raising standards of protection for vulnerable workers. These Principles follow consultations in London, Mauritius, and Dhaka over the past two years. We see these Principles as important and necessary steps. We expect most responsible companies to welcome these principles and use them as a basis to develop their own codes and guidelines. We also expect governments—particularly labour-exporting governments—to support these principles and include them in bilateral agreements with receiving countries. But it is also in the interest of labour-importing countries to support these principles. Human rights have no boundaries, and governments and businesses need to recognise that. Regardless of geography or industry sector, migrant workers’ rights must be protected in accordance with national law and international labour standards. Governments, business and civil society need to work together to restore migrant workers' dignity and decency. Given the scope of their contribution to the global economy, having their rights and dignity protected is the least these migrant workers should expect in return. Frances House is Director-Programmes at the Institute for Human Rights and Business, and leads its work on migrant workers. Salil Tripathi is Director-Policy at the Institute for Human Rights and Business. The website is http://www.ihrb.org
The Dhaka Principles • Workers should not have to pay recruitment fees; • Contracts should be clear and transparent; • Employers should not retain workers’ passports and other identification documents; • Migrant workers, even contractual employees, should be included in all codes of conduct and other regulations that protect workers; • There should be no discrimination against migrant workers on grounds of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or any other factor, in accordance with laws and standards • Compensation should be fair and paid directly to migrant workers; • Migrant workers should enjoy the same rights of representation and free association as enjoyed by other workers in the country; • Migrant workers should have the same right to access grievance mechanisms as other workers; • Migrant workers should have access to health and safety cover and training available to local workers, and material made available to them should be in their language; and • Migrant workers’ contracts should include the provision of safe and timely return to their home country, with full benefits paid, at the end of the contract, and even during the contract, in the event of an emergency.
· Jan–Mar 2012 · 39