TY - NEWS T1 - Des orphelines nicaraguéennes pour prendre soin de nos aînés CY - Montreal N2 - Après avoir recruté des centaines de machinistes, mécaniciens et soudeurs en Amérique centrale, un entrepreneur québécois s’apprête à former des orphelines du Nicaragua dans le but de les faire venir travailler au Québec comme aides familiales. A1 - Porter, Isabelle Y1 - 2017/// KW - Aide familiale Nicaragua orpeline UR - http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/actualites-en-societe/488454/des-orphelines-nicaragueennes-pour-prendre-soin-de-nos-aines?utm_source=infolettre-2017-01-05&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=infolettre-quotidienne Y2 - 2017-01-13 JA - Le devoir SP - 1 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Leamington, Ont. migrant worker receives last-minute deportation reprieve CY - Windsor N2 - Gina Bahiwal had her bags packed to return to the Philippines when she learned she could stay in Canada.A Leamington, Ont. migrant worker had her bags packed in anticipation of her impending deportation this Sunday when she learned it had been cancelled at the last minute.Gina Bahiwal came to Canada from the Philippines in 2008 under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program and worked packing vegetables, as a housekeeper and in the fast food industry. Y1 - 2017/01/13/ KW - Deportation UR - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/gina-bahiwal-migrant-worker-leamington-not-deported-1.3935481 Y2 - 2017-01-30 JA - CBC News SP - 1 M2 - 1 SP - 1 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Hong Kong - Submission to the Legislative Council Panel on Manpower N2 - Between May and October 2012, Amnesty International interviewed 50 Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. In March 2013, further interviews were conducted with 47 returnees in Indonesia who had worked in Hong Kong as domestic workers.1 All of the interviewees were women. The issues raised are not limited to Indonesians, but reflect the problems faced by the wider community of migrant domestic workers irrespective of nationality. Amnesty International’s research demonstrates that placement agencies in Hong Kong employ coercive practices to maintain control over migrant domestic workers (e.g. the confiscation of identity documents, manipulation of debt and restrictions on freedom of movement). In this way, they compel migrant domestic workers to work in conditions where they are exposed to exploitation, forced labour, threats and physical/psychological violence. Hong Kong placement agencies work in close partnership with Indonesian recruitment agencies, but they are separate organizations and come under the jurisdiction of the HKSAR authorities which have a responsibility to monitor and regulate them, and ensure that they are operating in full compliance with the laws in the Hong Kong SAR. The following outlines specific abusive practices, which in combination amount to trafficking and forced labour A1 - Amnesty International, International Secretariat,  Y1 - 2016/// UR - https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/4000/asa170052014en.pdf Y2 - 2016-03-14 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Swept Under the Rug: Abuses against Domestic Workers Around the World IS - vol. 18, no. 7 PB - Human Rights Watch A1 - Human Rights Watch,  Y1 - 2015/// KW - Trafficking KW - Forced Labour KW - Wage Exploitation UR - https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/07/27/swept-under-rug/abuses-against-domestic-workers-around-world Y2 - 2015-11-06 ER - TY - ICOMM T1 - NEW TOOL - MAP of support services to mig workers (domestic work) N2 - MAP of Canadian organizations providing support service to temporary foreign workers (domestic work) Updated twice/year (June 15 and Dec 15) A1 - MigrantWorkersRights-Canada,  Y1 - 2015/08/14/ UR - https://tmwpngocanada.cartodb.com/viz/dbfac464-faab-11e4-8f22-0e9d821ea90d/embed_map Y2 - 2015-08-14 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Live-In Caregivers Reveal Confidential Government Plans, Call for Permanent Status PB - Canadians for an inclusive Canada A1 - Canadians for an inclusive Canada,  Y1 - 2014/// ER - TY - RPRT T1 - From Private Homes to Public Action: 10 Years of the Domestic Workers Action Group PB - Domestic Workers Action Group (DWAG) Y1 - 2013/// UR - http://vimeo.com/80260359 UR - http://www.mrci.ie/our-work/domestic/ Y2 - 2013-12-17 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - "Yes, We Did It!" How the World's Domestic Workers Won Their International Rights and Recognition PB - Women in informal Employment : Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) N2 - On June 16, 2011, the worlds domestic workers and their supporters achieved a major step forward in extending worker and human rights. On that day, representatives of governments, employers and trade unions, meeting at the annual International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland, voted for a new Convention to protect the worlds domestic workers. This booklet outlines the how Convention C189 was achieved and the lessons that can be learnt for others who wish to promote a global society based on equality, justice, respect and rights for all. In particular, this booklet focuses on and celebrates the role of domestic workers themselves and that of their organizations as the fundamental players in making their own history. ********************************************** El 16 de junio de 2011, las trabajadoras del hogar y sus aliados dieron un enorme paso en la ampliación de los derechos humanos y de los trabajadores. Ese día representantes de gobiernos, empleadores y sindicatos, reunidos en la Conferencia Internacional del Trabajo (CIT) en Ginebra, Suiza, aprobaron un nuevo convenio para proteger a las trabajadoras del hogar de todo el mundo. Esta guía explica como el convenio C189 fue obtenido y qué lecciones pueden extraer quienes quieran promover una sociedad basada en la equidad, la justicia, el respeto y los derechos para todos. En particular, esta guía pone atención el rol de las trabajadoras del hogar y sus organizaciones, siendo protagonistas fundamentales de su propia historia que ellas mismas construyeron. A1 - Mather, Celia Y1 - 2013/// UR - http://wiego.org/resources/yes-we-did-it-how-worlds-domestic-workers-won-their-international-rights-and-recognition UR - http://wiego.org/sites/wiego.org/files/resources/files/Mather_Yes%20we%20did%20it!_2013.pdf Y2 - 2013-12-09 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Migrant Workers respond to proposed Ontario law PB - Migrant Workers Aliiance for Change A1 - Migrant Workers Alliance for Change ,  Y1 - 2013/12/05/ UR - http://www.migrantworkersalliance.org/migrant-workers-respond-to-proposed-ontario-law/ Y2 - 2013-12-05 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - New protections for Ontario workers announced today PB - Workers Action Center A1 - Workers Action Center,  Y1 - 2013/12/05/ UR - http://www.workersactioncentre.org/updates/new-protections-for-ontario-workers-announced-today/ Y2 - 2013-12-05 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Exploited for profit, failed by governments : Indonesian migrant domestic workers trafficked to Hong Kong N1 - **: The inability to find new employment in the two-week time limit leaves migrant domestic workers with little choice but to remain in abusive and/or exploitative conditions or accept jobs with unfavourable work conditions in order to maintain their immigration status. In 2006, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women,370 raised concerns that the Two-Week Rule pushes “foreign domestic workers to accept employment which may have unfair or abusive terms and conditions in order to stay in Hong Kong” ...In addition to increasing migrant domestic worker’s vulnerability to exploitative and abusive working conditions, the Two-Week Rule also significantly impedes their ability to access redress mechanisms in Hong Kong -p.76 CY - London PB - Amnesty International N2 - The workers are not tied to a single employer. However, if they leave their employer, they only have 2 weeks to find another, or else they fall under irregular status, a policy which acts similar to employer bondage. A1 - Amnesty International, International Secretariat,  Y1 - 2013/// KW - Trafficking UR - https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA17/029/2013/en/ Y2 - 2015-11-04 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Provincial Migrant Workers Campaign Launch #MakeItRight #InTogether PB - Migrant Worker Alliance for Change N2 - We are launching a new provincial campaign to ensure migrant workers have the same rights and benefits as all Ontarians. For too long Ontario's laws have excluded migrant workers. This affects us all. It’s time to #MakeItRight. We are #InItTogether. A1 - Migrant Workers Alliance for Change,  Y1 - 2013/// UR - http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=9de587703062110954e080261&id=43a1f275bc Y2 - 2013-10-09 ER - TY - NEWS T1 - Protect female migrant workers: Experts CY - Dhaka, Bangladesh PB - The Daily Star Y1 - 2013/03/19/ KW - female migrant workers KW - government responsibility UR - http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/protect-female-migrant-workers-experts/ Y2 - 2013-03-20 JA - The Daily Star ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - Gender Analysis of Migration from Bangladesh N2 - This paper is about the trend of women migration in Bangladesh, wages of women migrants, benefits accruied through migration from Bangladesh, cause of women migration from Bangladesh, Demand of women workers from Bangladesh, vulnerability of women in migration, problems of women migration in Bangladesh, policy measures in women migration in Bangladesh, remittances from women migrants, awareness campaign of women migrant workers, creation of human power facilities, skill training for women in foreign employment: need present perception, issues in gender-sensitiveness of migration and recommendation. A1 - Islam, Md. Nurul Y1 - 2013/// UR - http://www.bmet.org.bd/BMET/resources/Static%20PDF%20and%20DOC/publication/Gender%20Analysis%20of%20Migration.pdf Y2 - 2013-02-19 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Juripop, l'AAFQ et UES-FTQ annoncent la création d'une clinique juridique pour les femmes admises au Québec à titre d'aide familiale A1 - Juripop,  A1 - AAFQ,  A1 - UES-FTQ,  Y1 - 2012/11/29/ T3 - Communiqués de l'AAFQ ER - TY - NEWS T1 - Aides familiales résidantes: un centre de consultation juridique verra le jour A1 - Nicoud, Anabelle Y1 - 2012/11/28/ UR - http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/sante/201211/28/01-4598518-aides-familiales-residantes-un-centre-de-consultation-juridique-verra-le-jour.php Y2 - 2012-12-01 JA - La Presse ER - TY - NEWS T1 - ILO issues service directory for migrant workers CY - BEIRUT, Lebanon PB - The Daily Star Y1 - 2012/11/28/ KW - Domestic Workers KW - Claim Rights UR - http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Nov-28/196361-ilo-issues-service-directory-for-migrant-workers.ashx#axzz2RvvRtXeC Y2 - 2013-04-30 JA - The Daily Star SP - 4 ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - Brief Paper: Labor Migration From Colombo Process Countries Good Practices, Challenges and Ways Forward IS - NO.1 PB - International Organization for Migration (IOM) N2 - Since 2005, the Colombo Process (CP) Member Countries have taken concrete, proactive steps to manage labour migration by, for example, amending existing regulations or adopting new legislation, creating new government structures dedicated to managing labour outflows, signing bilateral agreements (BAs) and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with key destination countries and launching innovative programmes and activities at various levels of government. Despite successes in key areas, challenges remain, especially surrounding implementation. There is often a gap between the stated aims of policy measures and their application on the ground, particularly in four key areas: dissemination of information, the recruitment process, welfare support to migrants (at all stages of the migration cycle) and maximizing the benefits of labour migration. Indeed, policymakers in CP Member Countries face a formidable task: creating efficient and equitable migration systems that benefit labour migrants and their families while contributing to long-term economic growth and development in both source and destination countries. Governments have many options as they work to meet these and other challenges. This brief highlights 10 potential areas of focus, such as (1) improving pre-departure orientation programmes, (2) developing and harmonizing recruitment regulations between origin and destination countries and (3) enhancing welfare support at destination. Success requires serious investments in building capacity to fill critical information gaps. To this end, we recommend a three-pronged strategy: developing knowledge based on policy-relevant research, formalizing practical policy dialogues and forging meaningful partnerships among the major actors in labour migration. A1 - Agunias , Dovelyn Rannveig A1 - Aghazarm, Christine Y1 - 2012/// KW - policy KW - recruitment process KW - welfare support to migrants KW - benefit of labor migration UR - http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/ColomboProcessBrief.pdf Y2 - 2012-11-02 JA - Migrationpolicy ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - Full Paper: Labor Migration From Colombo Process Countries Good Practices, Challenges and Ways Forward IS - No.1 PB - International Organization for Migration (IOM) N2 - Since 2005, the Colombo Process (CP) Member Countries have taken concrete, proactive steps to manage labour migration by, for example, amending existing regulations or adopting new legislation, creating new government structures dedicated to managing labour outflows, signing bilateral agreements (BAs) and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with key destination countries and launching innovative programmes and activities at various levels of government. Despite successes in key areas, challenges remain, especially surrounding implementation. There is often a gap between the stated aims of policy measures and their application on the ground, particularly in four key areas: dissemination of information, the recruitment process, welfare support to migrants (at all stages of the migration cycle) and maximizing the benefits of labour migration. Indeed, policymakers in CP Member Countries face a formidable task: creating efficient and equitable migration systems that benefit labour migrants and their families while contributing to long-term economic growth and development in both source and destination countries. Governments have many options as they work to meet these and other challenges. This brief highlights 10 potential areas of focus, such as (1) improving pre-departure orientation programmes, (2) developing and harmonizing recruitment regulations between origin and destination countries and (3) enhancing welfare support at destination. Success requires serious investments in building capacity to fill critical information gaps. To this end, we recommend a three-pronged strategy: developing knowledge based on policy-relevant research, formalizing practical policy dialogues and forging meaningful partnerships among the major actors in labour migration. A1 - Agunias , Dovelyn Rannveig A1 - Aghazarm, Christine Y1 - 2012/// KW - policy KW - recruitment process KW - welfare support to migrants KW - benefit of labor migration UR - http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=758 Y2 - 2012-11-02 JA - International Organization for Migration (IOM) ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - Two embassies temporarily banned from bringing servants to Canada A1 - Lindell, Rebecca Y1 - 2012/11/01/ JA - Global News ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Bill against sexual harassment a boost to domestic workers’ PB - National Domestic Workers Movement A1 - Polanki, Pallavi Y1 - 2012/08/28/ KW - Domestic Workers KW - legal framework UR - http://ndwm.org/?page_id=295 Y2 - 2013-03-23 ER - TY - NEWS T1 - Chasing the golden goose CY - New Delhi, India PB - The Hindu Y1 - 2012/06/12/ KW - India KW - women migrant workers UR - http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article3491672.ece Y2 - 2013-03-31 JA - The Hindu ER - TY - NEWS T1 - India, Pakistan account for 71% of female migrants from South Asia CY - New Delhi, India PB - The Times of India Y1 - 2012/06/05/ KW - India KW - women migrant workers UR - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-05/south-asia/32054776_1_labour-migration-migrants-south-asia Y2 - 2013-03-31 JA - The Times of India ER - TY - NEWS T1 - 'More Indian women migrating to Gulf for jobs' CY - New Delhi, India PB - Hindustantime A1 - Gupta, Moushumi Das Y1 - 2012/06/04/ KW - India KW - women migrant workers UR - http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/More-Indian-women-migrating-to-Gulf-for-jobs/Article1-866026.aspx Y2 - 2013-03-31 JA - Hindustantime ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Visas Inc: Corporate Control and Policy Incoherence in the U.S. Temporary Foreign Labor System CY - New York PB - Global Workers Justice Alliance N2 - Executive Summary According to the best guess of the U.S. government, somewhere between 700,000 and 900,000 foreign citizens are working in the United States on temporary visas.1 They work in every field, from low-skilled, low-wage jobs in agriculture, to specialty occupations in health care or information technology. They may be in the public sector, employed as teachers in an under-served school district, or in the most private sphere of the private sector, as domestic workers living in their employer’s home. The temporary foreign labor system that brings in these workers consists of dozens of visa categories and sub-categories, for apparently distinct purposes – cultural and educational exchange, employee relocation by multinational enterprises, U.S. based training programs and more. But the problems become apparent when we examine the structure as a whole – and in particular, its vulnerability to extreme misuse by employers eager to use foreign labor in ways that undermine established wages and working conditions in the U.S. As far as many of these employers are concerned, the entire framework is one undifferentiated avenue to source cheaper and more easily controlled labor: ——U.S. employers have substantial economic incentives, built into the visa framework, to hire foreign workers in place of a potential or existing U.S. workforce. These incentives may be embodied in regulations that exempt employers of certain visa workers from payroll taxes, for example – or a lack of regulation, enabling employers to pay foreign workers far lower wages than established for U.S. workers. ——Foreign workers are wholly dependent on their employer for their fragile status in the U.S. As a general matter, if they are fired, they must leave the country quickly, or face deportation. Combined with other tools of control, this creates a culture of fear that effectively prevents workers from reporting any abuse or exploitation. The temporary worker visa system is utterly chaotic, constantly metastasizing to develop more visa categories or carve-outs, in response to employer demands. While there is extensive evidence of self-interested employer lobbying to expand the system, or employer misuse of the existing system, the ultimate responsibility lies with the U.S. government. The United States made a deliberate choice to shape a foreign temporary labor system that is heavily privatized, with a minimal role for public regulation and oversight. The U.S. government’s delegation of control over the temporary foreign labor scheme to employers – in spite of the many critical public interests at stake – has had dire consequences. The U.S. government has long been aware of the enormity of the situation: for nearly every relevant visa category, internal governmental reviews document exploitation of foreign workers, and displacement of U.S. workers.. Unfortunately, regulatory reforms have typically been meager, in proportion to the problems. For example, while the U.S. State Department has acknowledged that many foreign domestic workers entering the U.S. in the employ of diplomats have been exploited, and even enslaved, it has failed to address the core vulnerability of these workers through provisions for better enforcement and monitoring. Today, the State Department merely requires that domestic workers have a written contract with the employer before they can be granted a visa to enter the U.S. Governmental oversight is further hobbled by diffusion of responsibility. Regulation and enforcement is distributed among multiple agencies – the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Labor – in seemingly haphazard ways that are not consistent across visa categories, and do not provide for coordination among the agencies. In the case of the majority of these visas, the one agency mandated to protect U.S. and foreign workers – the Department of Labor – has been excluded or pushed to the margins.. The absence of clear data further undermines both coordination and public accountability. Under the current framework, no one within the U.S. government – let alone the U.S. public – is in a position to grasp the dimensions of the temporary foreign labor system, or to analyze its impact. The fragmentation of oversight is linked intrinsically to the fragmentation of the framework. Rather than developing a coherent, unitary system, the U.S. government, responding piecemeal to employer demands, created a patchwork of visas subject to distinct rules. Although it is clear that employers have learned to exploit the interconnections between these visas, the government continues to treat them as entirely distinct of each other. This refusal to regulate the temporary foreign labor system in an integrated way is perhaps the most substantial obstacle to meaningful reform and oversight. In the absence of comprehensive attention, employers treat these visas interchangeably, substituting reliance on one for another as circumstances – such as increased oversight here, or additional fees there – dictate. Analysis and reform must therefore happen holistically, if abuse and misuse are to be reined in, with the recognition that these individual visas constitute a de facto temporary foreign labor system. The abuse and misuse associated with temporary foreign labor are closely linked to the larger crisis of decent work in the U.S. The shift away from full-time, living wage jobs as the standard for American workers, to ever more precarious employment, is only accelerating. The use of temporary foreign labor is not responsible for the crisis, but it is both a contributing factor and an alibi. Allowing foreign workers in the U.S. is premised on the absence of willing, qualified and available U.S. workers. In reality, however, U.S. workers are actively edged out, as this report documents, in several ways: ——Individual U.S. workers are not hired, or are fired on a pretext. A foreign worker is then hired instead. ——Employers exploit visas that were intended for other purposes, and thus do not require a prior effort to hire U.S. workers. As a result, in many cases, U.S. workers may not even be aware of their exclusion. ——U.S. workers are pushed out of entire industries and regions by the systematic erosion of wages and underlying work conditions. This is followed by the recruitment of foreign workers. Foreign workers, in turn, are vulnerable to abuse throughout their involvement with temporary work in the U.S. The problems begin prior to departure, and extend beyond their return to their home countries: Prior to departure, workers are in the power of recruiters, who promise them employment opportunities in the U.S. in exchange for a substantial fee. In the absence of U.S. government regulation of recruiters (through provisions holding U.S. employers liable for any abuses by their recruiters, for example), there is total impunity. Many workers have been defrauded by recruiters who take their fees and then disappear. Other problems include gross discrimination: women workers accounted for only 3.7% of visas issued for agricultural labor in 2010,2 though advocate interviews suggested that women could represent up to 40% of the pool of job-seekers. ——On arrival, workers face economic exploitation at the hands of employers who know that individuals on temporary work visas have no recourse against either abuse or retaliation. Illegal deductions and wage theft are extremely common. ——While working, occupational health and safety violations are frequent, especially among “unskilled” workers. The problems arise, in part, from the very fact that the U.S. government allows risky work to be categorized as “unskilled. —The impact of exploitation and abuse in the U.S. can be life long. For example, injured workers find it nearly impossible to access workers’ compensation benefits once they return to their home countries. The U.S. insistence on treating the temporary foreign labor framework as a series of private employment arrangements, rather than a governmental program, means that there are no agreements in place with foreign governments to enable social protection schemes, even though workers may have a legal entitlement. There are several measures that the U.S. government should take to fix the system: ——There are short-term steps that could translate into immediate improvements in oversight and governance. The Department of Labor must be integrated into regulation and enforcement of all visa categories that enable temporary work in the U.S. It must have the resources and powers to assess the potential displacement of U.S. workers, as well as to enforce appropriate wages and working conditions for foreign workers. In order to promote greater accountability to the public, the U.S. must release consolidated and consistent data in a timely manner about the use of these visas, including the names of employers currently recruiting foreign workers. ——In the medium term, the U.S. government should undertake a systematic and sustained review of the temporary foreign labor visas to bring them in line with broader U.S. labor market policy. A helpful model would be the “permanent, independent Commission on Foreign Workers,”proposed by former Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall and the Economic Policy Institute,4 to collect data on labor shortages, the use of temporary work visas, and the economic impact of temporary foreign workers in the U.S. ——The long-term goal of reform should be a single visa system with uniform oversight, to replace the current patchwork of visas, each subject to separate regulations. Consistent public administration, rather than the delegation of essential responsibilities to private entities, is critical. The U.S. should engage systematically with foreign governments whose citizens work here, and should conclude agreements that (1) provide for cooperation on preventing abuse, and (2) enable access to social security benefits and workers’ compensation schemes. The size and reach of the temporary worker visa system is evidence that U.S. immigration policy has moved away from its roots in permanent labor migration. This has happened largely without public debate or political acknowledgment. At a minimum, it is time to renew the national conversations related to broad issues of immigration and labor in the U.S. A1 - Sukthankar, Ashwini Y1 - 2012/06/03/ UR - http://www.globalworkers.org/our-work/publications/visas-inc Y2 - 2012-06-13 T3 - Global Workers Justice Alliance Reports ER - TY - ADVS T1 - In defense of public legal education and information (PLEI) for migrant workers in British Columbia A1 - Contreras-Chavez, Angela A1 - RED Legal Network,  Y1 - 2012/05/18/ ER - TY - PAMP T1 - Travailleurs migrants au Canada: Main-d'oeuvre bon marché facilement abusée PB - Conseil Canadien pour les réfugiés N2 - Frais de recrutement exorbitants, heures supplémentaires imposées et non rémunérées, conditions de travail dangereuses, piètres conditions de vie... Ce ne sont là que quelques exemples des nombreux abus subis par des travailleurs migrants au Canada. Ce document de quatre pages peut être utilisé aux fins de sensibilisation et éducation publique A1 - Conseil canadien pour les réfugiés,  Y1 - 2012/04/01/ UR - http://ccrweb.ca/files/travailleursmigrants4pages.pdf Y2 - 2012-04-14 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Migrant worker advocates speak out against recruiters PB - Migrants Canada N2 - In front of a packed room and numerous local journalists, migrant worker organizations wrapped up a two day conference on temporary foreign workers, holding a press conference this morning in Guatemala City. A1 - Solidarity Across Borders Montreal,  Y1 - 2012/02/14/ UR - http://migrantscanada.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/migrant-worker-advocates-speak-out-against-recruiters/ Y2 - 2012-02-15 T3 - News and info about migrants in Canada ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - SHOULD WE IMPOSE A BAN ON SRI LANKAN HOUSEMAIDS GOING ABROAD? CY - Sri Lanka PB - Caritas Sri Lanka Y1 - 2012/01/16/ UR - http://www.caritaslk.org/index.php/news-stories/98-should-we-impose-a-ban-on-sri-lankan-housemaids-going-abroad.html Y2 - 2012-11-23 ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - Cambodian Domestic Workers in Malaysia: Challenges in Labor Migration Policy and Potential Mechanisms for Protection CY - Phnom Penh, Cambodia N2 - This paper will look at the challenges facing young Cambodian women who migrate to Malaysia as domestic workers. Section I will discuss the causes leading to the labor shortage in Malaysia and the difficulties in regulating this particular informal sector. The recruitment agency system for Cambodians is also detailed as well as the current working conditions for Cambodians in Malaysia. Section II will look at current legal mechanisms in place for workers, covering the domestic laws of Cambodia and Malaysia as well as international covenants, including a detailed analysis of the brand new Convention on Domestic Workers, adopted in June of 2011. Section III provides a case study of the Philippines where government regulation of the labor migration system has led to increases in remittances, worker protection and higher remuneration. Section IV concludes with recommendations for strengthening the labor migration system for Cambodians working in Malaysia. A1 - Léone, Elizabeth A. Y1 - 2012/01/15/ KW - Domestic Workers KW - Malaysia KW - Cambodia UR - http://usfca.edu/law/docs/cambodianworkers/ Y2 - 2013-04-20 ER - TY - ADVS T1 - “Be it for few months or years. Almost every temporary... PB - Justice for Migrant Workers N2 - “Be it for few months or years. Almost every temporary foreign worker who comes to Canada wants to settle here permanently. And that’s not an easy task to accomplish. Government is continually raising the bar for them to qualify for the permanent residency in Canada. A pre-Christmas party for the temporary foreign workers was held in Edmonton. Babar Tahirkheli spoke with some of them about their concerns.” A1 - J4MW,  Y1 - 2011/12/07/ UR - http://j4mw.tumblr.com/post/13909104623 Y2 - 2011-12-08 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - New PWC board fights domestic slavery in Canada N2 - To speak out against domestic slavery in Canada, the newly elected board of the Philippine Women Centre of BC will appear on CBC Vancouver news at 6 pm tomorrow, Oct. 11. A1 - Philippine Women Centre - BC,  Y1 - 2011/10/10/ UR - http://j4mw.tumblr.com/post/11307487089/new-pwc-board-fights-domestic-slavery-in-canada Y2 - 2011-10-14 T3 - Philippino Women Centre ER - TY - NEWS T1 - Minister touched by plight of women who got pregnant hoping to stay in Canada N2 - Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk has stepped up his push to get permanent status for temporary foreign workers in Alberta after hearing of recent cases of abuse of some Filipina women. A1 - Pratt, Sheila Y1 - 2011/09/09/ JA - Canada.com ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Labor Migration to Jordan from the Philippines and Sri Lanka Faces Significant Protection Gaps Despite Comprehensive Regulatory Systems, New MPI Report Concludes CY - WASHINGTON PB - Migration Policy Institution Y1 - 2011/07/28/ KW - recruitment agencies KW - Sri Lanka KW - Exploitation KW - the Philippines UR - http://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/2011_7_28.php Y2 - 2012-11-03 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report - Brunei PB - United States Department of State Y1 - 2011/06/27/ KW - Domestic Workers KW - Brunei KW - Trafficking UR - http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4e12ee9037.html Y2 - 2013-03-30 ER - TY - PCOMM T1 - Sri Lankan Domestic Workers Stranded in Jordan A2 - H.E. Prime Minister Samir al-Rifai PB - Human Rights Watch Y1 - 2011/01/27/ KW - Sri Lankan Domestic Workers KW - Jordan UR - http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/01/27/sri-lankan-domestic-workers-stranded-jordan Y2 - 2012-11-23 ER - TY - ICOMM T1 - India/UAE: Use Visit to Raise Migrant Worker Issue PB - Human Rights Watch Y1 - 2010/11/22/ KW - India KW - Letter from Humang rights watch KW - migrant workers in UAE UR - http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/11/22/indiauae-use-visit-raise-migrant-worker-issue Y2 - 2013-03-21 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Migration and the Gulf CY - Washington, DC PB - The Middle East Institute N2 - The book is about labor migration to the GCC States, patterns, scale and policies, Sri Lankan migration to the Gulf, female breadwinners, domestic workers, migration and human rights in the Gulf, Kerala emigrants in the Gulf, migration workers in Kuwait, the international political economy of Gulf migration, remittances from GCC countries, remittances to kerala, labor camps in the Gulf States, Omanization policy and international migration in Oman. It is also about paradigm shifts in India’s migration policy toward the Gulf. Y1 - 2010/// KW - Labor Camp KW - migration trend in the GCC KW - Policies for migration UR - http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/Migration_and_the_Gulf.pdf Y2 - 2012-10-29 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Foreign Worker Recruitment and Protection: The Role of Manitoba’s Worker Recruitment and Protection Act IS - Spring/printemps CY - Montréal PB - Association for Canadian Studies / Association d'études canadiennes A1 - Allan, The Honorable Nancy Y1 - 2010/// UR - http://canada.metropolis.net/pdfs/cdn_issues_CITC_mar10_e.pdf Y2 - 2011-09-23 JA - Canadian Issues/Thèmes canadiens SP - 29 M2 - 29 SP - 29-32 ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - Social Protection for Migrant Domestic Workers in Cambodia: A Case Study PB - The Global Network Solidar N2 - The goal of this case study is twofold. First, this research aims to provide an understanding of the many difficulties migrant workers face. Second, this report seeks to examine the path to overcoming the previously stated challenges. The first chapter explores social protections in Cambodia. After a broad examination of social protections in Cambodia the focus is narrowed to those social protections affecting migrant workers. The subsequent chapter looks at the story of a woman named Vann Sinoun who was a Cambodian migrant worker. Vann Sinoun’s story illustrates in a very human way the hardships migrant workers face. The final chapter looks at the different advocacy strategies undertaken on behalf of migrant workers. The study concludes with a brief discussion of the steps that need to be undertaken to ensure social protections for Cambodians. Y1 - 2010/// KW - Domestic Workers KW - Cambodia UR - http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/download/8797/7980 Y2 - 2013-05-01 ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - Migrant Workers and the Death Penalty in Bahrain & Saudi Arabia A1 - Rajab, Nabeel Y1 - 2010/02/24/ KW - Migrants KW - Bahrain KW - Saudi Arabia KW - Exploitation KW - Abuse KW - Death Penalty KW - migrants UR - http://www.caramasia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=857&Itemid=1 Y2 - 2012-10-29 JA - CARAM ASIA ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Rights on the Line Human Rights Watch Work on Abuses against Migrants in 2010 IS - isbn: 1-56432-726-4 CY - United States of America PB - Human Rights Watch N2 - This roundup of Human Rights Watch reporting on violations of migrants’ rights in 2010 includes coverage of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. Many countries rely on migrant workers to fill labor shortages in low-paying, dangerous, and poorly regulated jobs. Human Rights Watch documented labor exploitation and barriers to redress for migrants in agriculture, domestic work, and construction in Indonesia, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Immigration sponsorship systems in many countries give employers immense control over workers and lead to migrants being trapped in abusive situations or unable to pursue redress through the justice system. Y1 - 2010/// UR - http://www.hrw.org/reports/2010/12/12/rights-line-0 Y2 - 2013-01-17 ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - Pakistan PB - UNPD N2 - Migration is considered the road to prosperity by many Pakistanis. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, 4.2 million Pakistani workers have registered for overseas employment since 1971, travelling to more than 50 countries. There are a lot of migrants workers abroad who are undocumented. Many receiving countries have passed stringent laws and deport large numbers of undocumented Pakistanis each day for illegal border crossing and over staying visas. In addition, documented migrants who test positive for HIV in the semi-annual HIV testing conducted in many destination countries are deported, often without any information on the reason for this action. Pakistan is a source, transit, and destination countries for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Remittance sent by Pakistanis working abroad constitute the country’s largest single source of foreign exchange earnings, and are a major source of income to bridge huge trade deficits. For example, total migrant workers remittance was US$3.87 billion for the year 2003-2004,equivalent to 4.46 percent of Gross National Product (GNP). Migrant workers are among the groups considered vulnerable to HIV, as specified in the National HIV and AIDs strategic Framework (2001-2006). This article is also about pre-departure orientation, international convention that Pakistan has ratified and has not ratified, regional and bilateral Agreements, national policies and legislation and government agencies and networks. Y1 - 2009/// KW - national polices KW - migration KW - Pakistan KW - remittance KW - HIV KW - International Convention KW - regional and bilateral agreement KW - legislation KW - government agencies and networks UR - http://asia-pacific.undp.org/practices/hivaids/documents/HIV_and_Mobility_in_South_Asia_web_Pakistan.pdf Y2 - 2012-11-03 JA - UNDP ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - Sri Lanka PB - UNDP N2 - The article is about the migration pattern, occupational profile of migrants, gender and migration, human trafficking, remittance, HIV/AIDs situation, national response to HIV/AIDs, mandatory testing of the HIV in the destination countries, pre-departure orientation, polices, legislation, and International Conventions, regional and bilateral Agreements, government agencies and networks. Y1 - 2009/// KW - International Convention KW - HIV/AIDs KW - national laws KW - regional and bilateral Agreements UR - http://www.aidsdatahub.org/dmdocuments/HIV_and_Migration_-_Sri_Lanka.pdf Y2 - 2012-11-03 JA - UNPD ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Recruitment of Pakistani Workers for Overseas Mechanisms, Exploitation and Vulnerabilities CY - Switzerland PB - International Labor Organization N2 - Pakistan has annual migratory out-flow of more than 150,000 workers to different countries in the Middle East, but primarily to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. More than 60% of migrant workers originate from only 20 of the country’s 110 districts. The majorities of migrants obtain their foreign employment contract either through private Overseas Employment Promotes (OEPs) or obtain a direct visa. Moreover, labor migration from Pakistan to the Middle East is almost exclusively male. The inflow of remittances, reaching a peak of US$ 4.6 billion in 2005-2006 and US$4.45 billion in 2006-2007. The government of Pakistan has developed various institutions and rules to govern and regulate the labor recruitment process. Legally Pakistanis can go abroad through three channels: a public agency, private recruiting agent or following direct contract with foreign employers. The study found that about half of the migrants has been recruited by OEPs, while one-fifth had used friends and relatives. Another one-fifth of the respondents had received their visas directly from their foreign employers. About 14% of the respondents had been illegal migrants, including those who stayed on after the Haj/Umra pilgrimage, or who had gone abroad without documentation. Although the Government of Pakistan has taken several steps to make the recruitment system and migration process transparent, there is strong evidence that regulatory measure have not been able to curb all exploitative practices, including organized forms of illegal migration. A set of recommendations is provided on priority areas for further policy and institutional support. A1 - Arif , G.M Y1 - 2009/// KW - migrant workers KW - Migrant Workers KW - Migrant workers KW - Workers Rights KW - Labor migration KW - Pakistan KW - recruitment KW - private employment agency KW - remittance KW - return migration KW - Gulf States UR - http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---declaration/documents/publication/wcm_041928.pdf Y2 - 2012-10-29 ER - TY - THES T1 - The Temporary Foreign Worker Program: Canada’s Unconscionable Labour Mobility Strategy CY - Montreal PB - McGill University N2 - Advocating for the labour rights of all workers, including the many who quickly discover their own class susceptibilities as they toil in precarious employment situations, brings with it many unique and interesting challenges; however, when the element of one’s immigration status is introduced into the context, an entirely different saga emerges. The demographic of precarious status migrant workers in Canada is composed of individuals with a plethora of subjective migratory experiences, having arrived amidst different contexts, each equipped with a unique legal status, and therefore resulting in different (often restricted) opportunities for social and economic participation in Canadian life. In focussing nevertheless on just one subset of this demographic – migrants arriving under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) – it is an analysis of their disconcerting commonalities, namely: non-permanent status, the consequent grave vulnerability to social and labour abuses, over-representation in “low-skilled” remedial labour circumstances, and the significant barriers they face towards attaining permanent residency, which has urgently demanded the current review. My Independent Study Project (SWRK690) focuses on the existing immigration programs available to “temporary foreign workers” arriving to Canada, namely how these potentially exploitative programs have interfered with: the exercise of reclaiming one’s labour and/or human rights, the access to health and social services for participants’, and the resulting implications that ensue for clinical and community social workers, policy stakeholders, and researchers. I will address the program’s current foundation, while providing an expanded clarification of the legislation itself and a summary of the most likely vulnerabilities awaiting its workforce, by tracing the pulse of the argument from community groups and individuals opposed to the program. As the TFWP evidently gains in popularity, the outlook for the program’s longer-term sustainability will be juxtaposed against the (lack of) opportunities available to workers wishing to transition from temporary to permanent resident status. The present exposé will serve to summarize the predominant objections to the TFWP, with a commitment not to dismiss the firsthand practical experiences felt by workers’1, as past reports of this nature have risked doing. A1 - Rivard, Andre Y1 - 2009/// VL - M.SW. T2 - Social Work SP - 50 ER - TY - NEWS T1 - Des immigrants vulnérables CY - Montréal N2 - Description du Programme des aides familiaux résidents. A1 - Russo, Émilie Y1 - 2009/04/01/ KW - PAFR KW - domestiques KW - résidence permanente KW - assurance maladie UR - http://lesactualites.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/actualitescdn_090401.pdf Y2 - 2014-03-24 JA - Actualités CDN - NDG SP - 2 ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - NATIONAL LABOUR MIGRATION POLICY FOR SRI LANKA MINISTRY CY - Colombo PB - International Labor Organization (ILO) N2 - The Sri Lanka National Policy on Labour Migration is developed by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare. Its aim is to articulate the State Policy regarding Sri Lankan citizens engaged in employment in other countries and to recognise the significant contribution of all Sri Lankan migrant workers to the national economy through foreign exchange remittances and other mechanisms. The policy has the goals of developing a long-term vision for the role of labour migration in the economy, enhancing the benefits of labour migration on the economy, society, the migrant workers and their families, minimizing its negative impacts and, finally, working towards the fulfilment and protection of all human and labour rights of migrant workers. Over the years, Sri Lanka has instituted a number of programmes and schemes that cover issues of governance in the process of labour migration, the protection and welfare of migrant workers and their families. Most notably, the Sri Lanka Bureau for Foreign Employment (SLBFE) has been instituted since 1997, providing services and a regulatory framework for interested migrants. In 2007, this was brought under the purview of the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare (MFEPW). The operations of these initiatives have been within the framework of principles of decent work, dignity of labour and the protection of all human rights and freedoms of migrant workers and their families. Despite these initiatives, Sri Lanka continues to face a number of challenges in the field of foreign employment such as the vulnerability of workers who migrate under risky and unsafe conditions and the predominance of low-remittance, low-skilled jobs mainly for women with heavy social costs for families. Thus, the delicate balance between the promotion of foreign employment and the protection of national workers abroad is a continuous challenge. The current national policy is designed to address this and other challenges. Overall, the national policy aims to promote opportunities for all men and women to engage in migration for decent and productive employment in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. It is intended to do so through the institution of policies, laws, regulations, services and facilities for migrant workers and their families. Special emphasis is laid on the development of skills as a main and effective means of protection for migrant workers and their families. The policy is developed in three sections; namely, governance of the migration process, protection and empowerment of migrant workers and their families, and linking migration and development processes. Additionally, six appendices describe the comprehensive framework and consultative process within which the policy was developed. Y1 - 2008/// KW - Sri Lanka KW - National Policy on Labour Migration KW - the institutional framework KW - the legislative framework KW - the regulatory framework and the social dialogue and consultative framework UR - http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/migrant/download/mpolicy_srilanka_en.pdf Y2 - 2012-11-03 JA - ILO ER - TY - RPRT T1 - The Situation of Women Migrant Domestic Workers in Bahrain IS - 42 PB - Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, Caram Asia N2 - The most pressing problems faced by women in Bahrain include the following: – Discrimination in the workplace and denial of senior posts in both the private and public sectors; – Family law is uncodified and governed by all-male religious Sharia courts. Influential sections of the religious establishment oppose a codified family law, while the government has recently demonstrated a lack of interest in pursuing the matter. Meanwhile, Sharia courts and Public Prosecution have resorted to threatening activists who dare to criticize its discriminatory positions and practices; – Nationality: Children and spouses of Bahraini women married to non- Bahraini men are not entitled to citizenship; – Violence against women: Sexual harassment and domestic abuse against women is commonplace, with very little institutional support for victims, and marital rape is not considered a crime under Bahraini law. Y1 - 2008/// KW - Domestic Workers KW - Bahrainian Laws UR - http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/CARAMASIABahrain42.pdf Y2 - 2013-01-14 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Exported and Exposed Abuses against Sri Lankan Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates IS - 16 PB - Human Rights Watch N2 - Over 125, 000 Sri Lankan women migrate to the Middle East as domestic workers each year. Their earnings have made a significant contributions to the Sri Lankan economy, yet many migrant women resort to this survival strategy at profound personal cost. Unscrupulous labor agents and subagents in Sri Lanka often charge illegal exorbitant recruitment fees and decieve women about their propsective jobs. In Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), labor laws excluded domestic workers, who are typically confined to the workplace and labor for excessively long hours for little pay. In some cases, employers or labor agents subject domestic workers to physical abuse, sexual abuse, or forced labor. While current figure likely underestimate the scale of abust, the Sri Lankan government reports that 50 migrant domestic workers return to Sri Lanka “in distress” each day, abd embassies abroad are flooded with workers complaining of upaid wages sexual harassment, and overwork. Media have carried out the horrific abuse. Depite, this awareness, the government of Sri Lankan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, and the UAE hav failed to exented even standard labor protections to these workers. Sri Lanka has yet to rein in a competitive and corrupt recruitment industry, and has not created adequate support services or effective complaint mechanisms for abused workers. The countries of employment have balked at guaranteering rights that all other workers enjoy, including rest days, limits on working hours, and in some countries , a minimum wage. The Sri Lankan government’s policies havei mproved over recent years and it deserves credit for initiating important steps to manage the outflow of migrant workers and to start providing protections. The government of Sri Lanka set up an insititonal structure, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), in 1985 to esnure workers migratn through legal channels, minimize corruption and exploitation by recruitment agencies, and facilitate the flow of workers’ remittances. Yet significant gaps in protection remain. Y1 - 2007/// KW - Domestic Workers KW - Abuse KW - Middle-East UR - http://www.worldwideopen.org/uploads/resources/files/645/TFGLO040_Exported_and_Exposed_Abuses_Against_Sri_Lankan_Domestic_Workers.pdf Y2 - 2012-11-25 ER - TY - ICOMM T1 - Maid to Order Ending Abuses Against Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore PB - Human Rights Watch N2 - I was not allowed to go outside.I never went outside, not even to dump the garbage.I was always inside, I didn't even go to the market.I felt like I was in jail.It was truly imprisonment.I was not allowed to turn the radio on either.I could only see the outside world when I hung clothes to dry. - Sri Mulyani (not her real name), Indonesian domestic worker, age thirty, Singapore, February 19, 2005 I was afraid if I ran away, I would be caught by the police. Madam often got angry with me, complained to the agency, and the agency also got angry with me.The agent asked, "What do you want?" I said, "I want to die, ma'am, because the people here are cruel, everything I do is wrong, I'm always called idiot and stupid." [It got so bad,] I really didn't know what to do, so I drank poison for rats and cockroaches.I lost consciousness, and Madam brought me to the hospital. The police told me it was wrong to try suicide. When the incident happened, I had been working exactly seven months.I had earned S$90 [U.S.$53]. -Muriyani Suharti (not her real name), domestic worker, age twenty-two, Singapore, March 8, 2005 Between 1999 and 2005, at least 147 migrant domestic workers died from workplace accidents or suicide, most by jumping or falling from residential buildings. There is no single reason why domestic workers resort to suicide, but research by Human Rights Watch suggests that many women are made despondent by poor working conditions, anxiety about debts owed to employment agencies, social isolation, and prolonged confinement indoors, sometimes for weeks at a time. As authorities have acknowledged, many of the deaths are also due to workplace accidents. Several of the workers fell to their deaths after their employers forced them to balance precariously, despite being many stories up, to clean windows from the outside or to hang clothes to dry on bamboo poles suspended from window sills. While the deaths of migrant workers described above have received increasing attention in the media and from policymakers, the context in which they occur too often is overlooked. This report, which draws on extensive research and more than one hundred interviews, surveys the abusive conditions facing many domestic workers in Singapore today. Many migrant domestic workers in Singapore face abysmally long working hours, no weekly rest days, and low wages, areas neglected by Singapore's laws and addressed primarily through non-binding information guides. In many cases, migrant domestic workers in Singapore work thirteen to nineteen hours a day, seven days a week, and are restricted from leaving the workplace. They typically earn less than half the pay that workers earn in similar occupations in Singapore-such as gardening and cleaning-and are forced to relinquish the first four to ten months of their salaries to repay employment agency fees. In the worst cases, manipulated by agents or employers or both, migrant domestic workers suffer under conditions amounting to forced labor. Singaporean officials are now beginning to give these problems serious attention. Authorities have imposed tough punishments on employers who physically abuse or fail to pay their domestic workers. Although increasing numbers of officials are turning their attention toward domestic workers, the problems persist. And while Singapore's applicable laws and regulations offer stronger protections than do those of neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore is still far behind Hong Kong, which includes domestic workers in its main labor laws, protecting their rights to a weekly rest day, a minimum wage, maternity leave, and public holidays. Employers in Hong Kong must also bear most recruitment and placement fees, including the cost of visas, insurance, required medical exams, and round-trip transportation from the worker's hometown. The Singapore government to date has preferred to rely on market forces rather than laws to regulate key labor issues for domestic workers such as charges imposed by employment agencies, wages, and weekly rest days. As a result, a migrant domestic worker's fate in Singapore is highly variable. She may secure a good employer and labor agent, enjoy favorable working conditions, and earn wages that she saves or regularly sends home. Or she may work for months without pay to settle debts incurred from exorbitant recruitment fees, labor for long hours seven days a week, and confront prohibitions from leaving the workplace. Singaporean authorities need to do more-through legal reform, enhanced public awareness campaigns, and more consistent law enforcement-to ensure all workers are protected against abuses and can readily seek redress when necessary. *** Singapore, a prosperous city-state in Southeast Asia, attracts women migrant domestic workers from around the region. Approximately 150,000 women, primarily from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, hold work permits for two-year employment stints in Singapore. Approximately one in every seven Singaporean households employs a "live-in" migrant domestic worker. The child care, domestic duties, and elder care these women perform help free up Singaporean men and women to work outside of their homes. The Singapore government also views employment of foreign domestic workers as a strategy to boost a below-replacement birthrate-domestic services ease the burden on working women and Singaporean families who decide to rear children. No data exists to calculate accurately the number of women migrant domestic workers who confront labor rights and other human rights violations. Many migrant domestic workers have positive experiences. Human Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers who received wages and rest days regularly, enjoyed proper living accommodation, and developed close personal ties with their employers. The Ministry of Manpower estimates that one in three domestic workers renew their two-year contracts and continue to work under the same employer. A significant number of migrant domestic workers are not so fortunate. Given their isolation in private homes, it is difficult to ascertain the exact proportion of migrant domestic workers who face abuse. However, domestic workers make thousands of complaints to their embassies, employment agents, private service organizations, the Singapore Police, and the Ministry of Manpower each year. The Indonesian embassy alone estimates that it receives fifty complaints per day, mostly from domestic workers. The Philippines embassy and the Sri Lanka High Commission estimate receiving between forty to eighty complaints from domestic workers per month. Many abuses likely never are reported, especially if an employer repatriates a domestic worker before she has a chance to seek help. The abuse often begins in domestic workers' home countries. Recruitment practices and legislation vary greatly by country. The Philippines has clearly defined policies on standard employment contracts and recruitment fees. The employment contract provides for a day off each week and a monthly minimum wage of S$350 [U.S.$206]. But many Filipinas come through unlicensed agents or on tourist visas, making them subject to overcharging, poor working conditions, and less access to redress. In Indonesia, domestic workers face high fees from local labor agents, and are often confined in overcrowded, locked training facilities for up to six months while waiting for placement abroad. Many domestic workers report inadequate food and some confront physical violence. The different routes workers take in getting to Singapore correlate with the conditions they are likely to face upon arrival. According to embassy officials and Human Rights Watch's own research, workers placed through unlicensed agents are more likely to have lower wages, no days off, and illegal deployments to multiple homes. Several domestic workers from Indonesia, for example, told us they were threatened with retaliation by employment agents who told them they would be trafficked into forced prostitution or would have to pay substantial fines if they did not complete their debt payments. Other domestic workers reported that employment agents confiscated their passports and any contact information in their possession, making it difficult to seek help. In Singapore, the government does not adequately regulate the fees, "private loans," and salary deduction arrangements imposed by employment agencies on migrant domestic workers. Intense competition among the more than six hundred employment agencies has led them to reduce fees charged to employers, and to shift the cost of recruitment, transportation, training, and placement to domestic workers. Domestic workers who change employers pay extra fees for transfer costs, sometimes extending their debts by months. Seeking employment in Singapore precisely because they are escaping poverty in their own countries, many women must take on large debts which they settle by working for four to ten months with little or no pay. The Employment Agencies Act stipulates that employment agencies cannot charge job seekers more than 10 percent of their first month's earnings. Singapore's Ministry of Manpower has argued that the charges to domestic workers are not agency fees, but instead private loans that fall outside of the law's parameters. This distinction for costs associated with recruitment, processing, and placement with employers is arbitrary and unfairly strips migrant domestic workers of important protections.Human Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers who said they stayed in situations of abuse because of their debt obligations. The Singapore government has instituted several policies that exacerbate domestic workers' isolation in homes and their risk of abuse. One is a S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950] security bond imposed on employers who hire domestic workers. Employers forfeit the bond if their domestic worker runs away or if they fail to pay for the domestic worker's repatriation costs. The Singapore government enacted this policy in an attempt to control illegal immigration and to ensure employers have adequate funds to repatriate the workers on completion of their contracts. Instead, the bond has become an incentive to employers to tightly restrict their domestic workers' movements, prevent them from giving workers weekly rest days, and sometimes to lock them in the workplace. Another policy ties migrant domestic workers' work permits to particular families, giving employers inordinate power. Under the existing system, employers may repatriate domestic workers at will, even if they have not paid off their debts or earned any income. Singapore's work permit regulations forbid migrant domestic workers from becoming pregnant, restrict their marriage and reproductive rights, and provide further incentives for employers to confine domestic workers to the workplace to prevent them from "running away" or "having boyfriends." The prohibition on becoming pregnant has also led to unequal access to health care services, including voluntary abortions, as some employers, agents, and domestic workers believe that seeking an abortion will result in automatic deportation. Singapore, in a stated attempt to regulate unskilled labor migration, also imposes a monthly levy on employers of work permit holders-employers of domestic workers must pay S$200-295 [U.S.$118-174] to a central government fund each month. This amount is more than many employers pay to the domestic workers themselves. Given 150,000 workers, this translates to roughly S$360-531 million (U.S.$212-313 million) annually. None of these funds are earmarked for services geared toward migrant workers. In response to growing publicity and alarm over abuses against migrant domestic workers, Singapore's Ministry of Manpower has instituted some encouraging reforms in the past two years. These include mandatory orientation programs for new employees and new employers, increased commitment to prosecuting cases of unpaid wages and physical abuse, and the introduction of an accreditation program for employment agencies. The ministry also has published an information guide advising employers on proper treatment of domestic workers and informing them of the penalties for physical assault and forced confinement. These initiatives, though important, do not go far enough. Singapore needs to do more to address the underlying inequities and lack of protection that result in widespread abuse. Singapore's Employment Act and Workmen's Compensation Act should be amended to include domestic workers. These laws guarantee weekly rest days, limitations on work hours, and regular payment of wages and overtime. They also regulate salary deductions for debt payments and address compensation for workplace injuries. Singapore also should institute stronger mechanisms for inspecting workplaces and employment agencies. The accreditation program, though a positive step, needs improved protections for domestic workers' rights, including greater transparency about recruitment and placement charges, and detailed provisions on working conditions such as weekly rest days. In a country well-known for strictly enforcing laws to promote order and efficiency, the failure to provide adequate and equal protection to an entire class of workers is an anomaly and undermines the rule of law. In cooperation with labor-sending countries and international bodies such as the International Labor Organization, Singapore should undertake immediate and effective reforms to end these abuses. Singapore has a choice. It can become a standard-setter in the region for labor-receiving countries. Or it can settle for second-best solutions that fail to address the roots of abuses against migrant domestic workers. This report is based on several months of research including field research in Singapore in February, March, and November 2005. Human Rights Watch conducted sixty-five in-depth interviews with migrant domestic workers, reviewed the case files of twenty-five migrant domestic workers, and held focus groups and informal interviews with dozens more. These interviews took place at shelters and skills-training programs; in parks, shopping centers, and places of worship on domestic workers' days off; and at employment agencies. We also interviewed more than fifty representatives from Singapore's Ministry of Manpower, employment agents, employers, and private nongovernmental and faith-based organizations. All names of domestic workers cited in this report have been changed to protect their identity. Many employment agents and service providers also spoke with us on condition of anonymity, and their names have also been withheld. This is Human Rights Watch's ninth report on abuses against domestic workers, including both children and adults. We have also documented abuses in El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Togo, and the United States. Key Recommendations Human Rights Watch urges the Singapore government to: Provide equal and comprehensive legal protection to migrant domestic workers by: Amending the Employment Act and Workmen's Compensation Act to provide equal protection to domestic workers. Establishing and periodically reviewing a national minimum wage to address domestic workers' vulnerability to wage exploitation. The National Wages Council should also investigate and recommend policies that promote equal pay for equal work in the domestic work sector. Creating a standard contract that protects migrant domestic workers' rights in accordance with national provisions in the Employment Act and international labor standards. Enforce policies that help prevent abusive practices such as exorbitant debt payments to employment agencies, forced labor, and forced confinement by: Increasing enforcement of the Employment Agencies Act to ensure compliance with caps on agency fees. Implementing policies so that migrant domestic workers do not spend several months working off their debts with little or no pay, a situation that fosters a range of human rights abuses. The government should look to the Philippines and Hong Kong, who require employers to pay for round-trip airfare and most expenses associated with recruitment and placement, including those now covered by private loans in Singapore. The government should consider adjusting the monthly levy to offset the cost to employers. Abolishing the S$5,000 [U.S.$2,950] security bond. Prosecuting employers who confine domestic workers to the workplace. Permitting migrant domestic workers to reside in independent living quarters. Create and improve mechanisms to prevent, monitor, and respond to abuse of migrant domestic workers by: Inspecting workplace conditions and employment agencies regularly. Withdrawing accreditation powers from the Association of Employment Agencies in Singapore (AEAS) and CaseTrust and creating a new accreditation body for employment agencies with more comprehensive standards. The body should include representatives from employment agencies, consumer rights organizations, domestic workers' rights organizations, the Ministry of Manpower, and labor-sending countries. Creating helpdesks at the airport and main police stations with staff fluent in the primary languages spoken by migrant workers. Improving training for the police and immigration authorities to respond to abuse of migrant domestic workers. Conducting exit interviews with domestic workers when they are returning home to ensure they have been paid and to provide an opportunity to report any abuse. Sign and ratify the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Migrant Workers Convention). The governments of Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, and other sending countries should: Improve protections for citizens working in Singapore by: Improving victim services at embassies and diplomatic missions in Singapore and providing resources including adequate staffing, access to legal aid, health care, trauma counseling, and shelter. Keeping a section of embassies and diplomatic missions open on Sunday, the day many migrant workers have off, and supporting skills training programs, and recreation and cultural centers for domestic workers. Regulate and monitor labor recruitment agencies and migrant worker training centers in their countries by: Regulating labor agencies and migrant worker training centers, and more clearly defining standards for fees, minimum health and safety conditions, and workers' freedom of movement. Labor agencies and agents who violate these regulations should face substantial penalties. Establishing mechanisms for regular and independent monitoring of labor agencies, including unannounced inspections. Accreditation bodies and employment agencies should: Contribute to the creation of safe and just working conditions for migrant domestic workers by: Implementing a standard employment contract that establishes detailed protections on wages, hours of work, weekly rest days, salary deductions, and other terms of employment according to national provisions in the Employment Act and international labor standards. Creating recommended pay scales according to work experience and other qualifications, such as education. Abolish discriminatory policies that determine entry-level wages according to nationality rather than work experience, education, or other relevant criteria. Reporting cases of employer abuse to the Ministry of Manpower, the police, embassies, and accreditation bodies. Before placing a replacement domestic worker with an employer accused of abuse, agencies should exercise due diligence. A1 - Human Rights Watch,  Y1 - 2005/12/05/ KW - Singapore KW - Abuse KW - Domestic migrant workers UR - http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/12/06/maid-order Y2 - 2013-03-30 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Labor migration in Asia: Protection of migrant workers, support services and enhancing development benefits CY - Geneva, Switzerland PB - International Organization for Migration N2 - Three countries, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka are used as case studies in this book. The book will examine legal and structural frameworks for regulating recruitment activities, licensing and supervision of agencies, monitoring of recruitment agencies, processing and documentation of workers, benchmarks for fixing minimum standards of overseas employment contracts, role of private recruitment agencies in labor migration, regulation and mechanisms for regulating recruitment of vulnerable workers, malpractice by private recruitment agencies, malpractice by employers, illegal recruitment and unlawful emigration, redress for violation of rights of migrant workers, efforts at enforcing minimum standards in Employment contracts, other mechanism t check abuses by recruitment agencies and good practices and lessons learned on regulation o recruitment. Y1 - 2005/// KW - Role of recruitment agencies KW - malpractice of recruitment agencies and employers KW - contracts improvement UR - http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/books/labour_migration_asia.pdf Y2 - 2012-11-02 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - "Bad Dreams:" Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia IS - E1605 PB - Human Rights Watch N2 - "It was like a bad dream" is the way one migrant worker from the Philippines summed up his experiences in Saudi Arabia. Another worker, from Bangladesh, told us: "I slept many nights beside the road and spent many days without food. It was a painful life. I could not explain that life." A woman in a village in India, whose son was beheaded following a secret trial, could only say this: "We have no more tears, our tears have all dried up." She deferred to her husband to provide the account of their son's imprisonment and execution in Jeddah. It is undeniable that many foreigners employed in the kingdom, in jobs from the most menial to the highest skilled, have returned home with no complaints. But for the women and men who were subjected to abysmal and exploitative working conditions, sexual violence, and human rights abuses in the criminal justice system, Saudi Arabia represented a personal nightmare. In 1962, then-King Faisal abolished slavery in Saudi Arabia by royal decree. Over forty years later, migrant workers in the purportedly modern society that the kingdom has become continue to suffer extreme forms of labor exploitation that sometimes rise to slavery-like conditions. Their lives are further complicated by deeply rooted gender, religious, and racial discrimination. This provides the foundation for prejudicial public policy and government regulations, shameful practices of private employers, and unfair legal proceedings that yield judicial sentences of the death penalty. The overwhelming majority of the men and women who face these realities in Saudi Arabia are low-paid workers from Asia, Africa, and countries in the Middle East. This report gives voice to some of their stories. It is based on information gathered from migrant workers and their families in mud brick houses off dirt roads in tropical agricultural areas of southwest India, in apartments in densely packed neighborhoods of metropolitan Manila, and in simple dwellings in rural villages of Bangladesh. The victims include skilled and unskilled workers; Muslims, Hindus, and Christians; young adults traveling outside their home countries for the first time; and married men, and single and divorced women, with children to support. In Saudi Arabia, these workers delivered dairy products, cleaned government hospitals, repaired water pipes, collected garbage, and poured concrete. Some of them baked bread and worked in restaurants; others were butchers, barbers, carpenters, and plumbers. Women migrants cleaned, cooked, cared for children, worked in beauty salons, and sewed custom-made dresses and gowns. Unemployed or underemployed in their countries of origin, and often impoverished, these men and women sought only the opportunity to earn wages and thus improve the economic situation for themselves and their families. This report is the first comprehensive examination of the variety of human rights abuses that foreign workers experience in Saudi Arabia. The voices of these migrants provide a window into a country whose hereditary, unelected rulers continue to choose secrecy over transparency at the expense of justice. The stories in this report illustrate why so many migrant workers, including Muslims, return to their home countries deeply aggrieved by the lack of equality and due process of law in the kingdom. In an important sense, this report is an indictment of unscrupulous private employers and sponsors as well as Saudi authorities, including interior ministry interrogators and shari'a court judges, who operate without respect for the rule of law and the inherent dignity of all men and women, irrespective of gender, race, and religion. Some of the most frightening and troubling findings of the report concern mistreatment of women migrant workers, both in the workplace and in Saudi prisons. The report also provides an intimate view of the workings of Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system, through the eyes of migrant workers with first-hand experience of its significant flaws. And it is the families and friends of migrants who were beheaded, pursuant to judicial rulings, who describe how Saudi authorities kept them and consular officials in the dark until well after the executions were carried out. The mortal remains of these victims were not returned to their families, who until now have no information about what happened to the bodies. Labor Exploitation Each chapter of this report includes testimonies from migrant workers who entered the kingdom legally, in full compliance with Saudi government regulations. Many of them paid hefty sums of money to manpower recruitment agencies in their home countries to secure legal employment visas, often assuming substantial debt or selling property to finance the cost. Once in the kingdom, they found themselves at the mercy of legal sponsors and de facto employers who had the power to impose oppressive working conditions on them, with effective government oversight clearly lacking. Unaware of their rights, or afraid to complain for fear of losing their jobs, the majority of these workers simply endured gross labor exploitation. To cite only a few examples, we interviewed migrant workers from Bangladesh who were forced to work ten to twelve hours a day, and sometimes throughout the night without overtime pay, repairing underground water pipes for the municipality of Tabuk. They were not paid salaries for the first two months and had to borrow money from compatriots to purchase food. An Indian migrant said that he was was paid $133 a month for working an average of sixteen hours daily in Ha'il. A migrant from the Philippines said that he worked sixteen to eighteen hours a day at a restaurant in Hofuf, leaving him so exhausted that, he told us, he "felt mentally retarded." The employer of a migrant from Bangladesh, who worked as a butcher in Dammam, forced him to leave the kingdom with six months of his salary unpaid. Women Migrant Workers Some women workers that we interviewed were still traumatized from rape and sexual abuse at the hands of Saudi male employers, and could not narrate their accounts without anger or tears. Accustomed to unrestricted freedom of movement in their home countries, these and other women described to us locked doors and gates in Riyadh, Jeddah, Medina, and Dammam that kept them virtual prisoners in workshops, private homes, and the dormitory-style housing that labor subcontracting companies provided to them. Living in forced confinement and extreme isolation made it difficult or impossible for these women to call for help, escape situations of exploitation and abuse, and seek legal redress. We learned that hundreds of low-paid Asian women who cleaned hospitals in Jeddah worked twelve-hour days, without food or a break, and were confined to locked dormitories during their time off. Skilled seamstresses from the Philippines told us that they were not permitted to leave the women's dress shop in Medina where they worked twelve-hour days, and were forbidden to speak more than a few words to customers and the Saudi owners. Many women employed as domestic workers in cities throughout the kingdom reported that they worked twelve hours or more daily. Most of them also lived in around-the-clock confinement, at the decision of their private employers, cut off from the outside world. One woman from the Philippines, whose employers in Dammamdid not provide her with sufficient food, described how she enlisted help from the family's Indian driver, to whom she was forbidden to speak. She told us that she wrote lists of what she needed and threw them out the window to the driver. He made the purchases, and "delivered" them to her by tossing the packages onto the roof of the house, where she retrieved them. Another Filipina, who also worked for a family in Dammam, said that she constantly watched the locked front gate of the house, waiting for an opportunity to escape after her male employer raped her in June 2003. Human Rights Abuses in the Criminal Justice System Some migrant workers experienced shocking treatment in Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system. For those migrants who were executed following unfair trials that lacked any form of transparency, it was their still-grieving families who provided us with pertinent information. In many cases, the condemned men did not know that they had been sentenced to death, and their embassies were only informed after the fact. "No advance information is given to us before beheading of Indians," an Indian diplomat said in a television interview in 2003. "We generally get the information after the execution from local newspapers." In cases of execution documented in this report, the bodies were not returned to the families, and relatives told Human Rights Watch that they received no official information about the location in Saudi Arabia of the mortal remains. An undetermined number of foreigners have been sentenced to death in the kingdom and are now awaiting execution. Details of their trials, and the evidence presented to convict them, are treated as closely held state secrets. Saudi Arabia continues to flaunt its treaty obligations under international and domestic law. Consular officials have not been notified promptly of the arrests of their nationals. Criminal suspects are not informed of their rights under the law. Interrogators from the ministry of interior torture suspects with impunity, behind the curtain of prolonged incommunicado detention, in the quest for confessions whose veracity is tenuous at best. Migrant workers told Human Rights Watch of how they were forced to sign confession statements that they could not read, under the threat of additional torture. A twenty-three-year-old Indian tailor described two days of beatings in police custody. On the third day, his interrogators gave him two pages handwritten in Arabic and instructed him to sign his name three times on each page. "I was so afraid that I did not dare ask what the papers were, or what was written on them," he said. Migrants' accounts of their trials before shari'a courts provide evidence of a legal system that is out of sync with internationally accepted norms of due process. No one we interviewed had access to legal assistance before their trials, and no legal representation when they appeared in the courtroom. One Indian migrant worker told us about a judge who repeatedly called him a liar when he answered questions during his trial. A worker from the Philippines, who was imprisoned for five years before he was brought before a court for the first time, described how a judge sentenced him to 350 lashes because his interrogators had extracted a false confession. The judge justified this corporal punishment because the coerced confession, obtained under threats and torture, was untrue. Interviews with women migrants in the women's prison in Riyadh indicated that most of them had not been informed of their rights, had no understanding of the legal basis for their arrest or the status of their cases, and had no access to lawyers or other forms of legal assistance. The Need for Government Action The stories narrated in this report underscore the pressing need for the government of Saudi Arabia to recognize that its laws and regulations facilitate the exploitation and abuse of vulnerable migrant workers, and reform its laws and practices accordingly. Some major recommendations are highlighted below, and a full range of recommendations, to Saudi government officials and actors in the international community, is presented in Chapter IX. One of the most tragic aspects of the situation is that many migrants silently accept the exploitation and deprivation of their rights because they view themselves as powerless and without effective remedy. These workers arrive in Saudi Arabia ignorant or only vaguely informed about the rights they have under existing Saudi law and the actions they can take when inequities and mistreatment occur. This is a problem that their own governments could address, in part, by way of substantive and effective education before these workers depart for the kingdom. But the government of Saudi Arabia has the primary responsibility to promote and protect the rights of the country's large migrant worker population in a much more aggressive and public manner, consistent with its obligations under international law. Authorities should provide a clear enumeration of the specific rights that migrant workers are entitled to enjoy under the kingdom's laws and regulations. They should spell out the specific legal duties of sponsors and employers, provide a comprehensive list of practices that are illegal, and offer detailed instructions about how and where migrant workers can report abuses. This information should be practical, not theoretical. It should draw on specific abuses that migrants are most likely to face, such as those described in this report, and provide authoritative comments and advice. The information should be translated into the languages of the countries of origin of migrant workers, and provided to every worker on his or her arrival in the kingdom as a routine matter of immigration practice. The government should also identify additional means to communicate this information to migrant communities throughout the kingdom as a further demonstration of its commitment to greater protection of their rights. Saudi authorities must also recognize that many migrant workers are simply too afraid to report abusive treatment for fear of alienating sponsors or de facto employers, inviting retaliatory punishment, and losing their jobs. Government officials must take steps to communicate directly with migrant workers in the kingdom – using all available means, including broadcast as well as print media – to provide assurances that no one will be rendered jobless and summarily deported for complaining about illegal practices and abusive working conditions. The Saudi government says that it plans to reduce the number of foreign workers by 50 percent over the next decade.1 This objective does not lessen the urgent need for the state to remedy the exploitation of migrant workers who are now in the kingdom and to end discriminatory practices that severely circumscribe their rights under Saudi law. Even if the government's planned downsizing is achieved within ten years, the kingdom will still be required under domestic and international law to protect the rights of those migrant workers who remain. If Saudi authorities do not take serious steps to address the patterns of abuse of migrant workers, the issue will continue to be a subject of investigation and scrutiny, on the agendas of international human rights organizations, nongovernmental migrant rights groups in countries of origin, and coalitions of women's rights and human rights organizations in the Muslim world and elsewhere. There is public sentiment in the kingdom, and elsewhere in the Gulf region, sympathetic to the plight of migrant workers. No less than the kingdom's highest Muslim religious authority, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh, has already acknowledged that migrants suffer "exploitation and oppression."2 His comments, published in 2002 in the Saudi daily al-Madinah, included the observation that "Islam does not permit oppressing workers, regardless of religion ... .As we ask them to perform their duty, we must fulfill our duty and comply with the terms of the contract." The Grand Mufti criticized intimidation of migrant workers, and said that it was "illegal and a form of dishonesty" to withhold their salaries or delay payment of wages under threat of deportation. He counseled that Islam prohibits "blackmailing and threatening [foreign] laborers with deportation if they refuse the employers' terms which breach the contract." Another example comes from the neighboring island nation of Bahrain, where the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), a nongovernmental organization, is campaigning for greater protection of women domestic workers. A BCHR official in 2003 described these women as "the most abused of the workforce," and charged that the government was not doing enough "to break the chain of exploitation that binds them." The group urged civil society organizations in Bahrain, including women's rights groups, to take up the issue.3 Methodology The testimonies in this report were obtained from interviews with migrant workers in Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines who had returned from Saudi Arabia, some of them as recently as December 2003. Human Rights Watch was forced to research this subject from outside Saudi Arabia because, as of this writing, the kingdom remains closed to investigators from international human rights organizations. We selected Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines for field research for several reasons. First, the migrant workers from these three countries are among the largest expatriate communities in Saudi Arabia. In 2003, the Saudi government estimated that there were one million to 1.5 million Indians in the kingdom and the same number of Bangladeshis. The Philippines government reported in the same year that over 900,000 of its citizens lived and worked in the kingdom. Second, these countries provided the diversity that we sought among interviewees: the workers whose accounts appear in this report include Muslims from Bangladesh, Hindus and Muslims from India, and Christians and Muslims from the Philippines. We found migrants from Bangladesh the least educated; they typically were unskilled younger men from rural villages whose salaries in Saudi Arabia were the lowest we recorded. We interviewed Indian migrants in cities, towns, and rural agricultural villages of Kerala, the small southwestern state of about 33 million people located on India's Malabar coast between the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The Keralite migrants generally had more schooling than their Bangladeshi counterparts and worked in a broader range of skilled and unskilled jobs. Migrants from the Philippines had the highest education levels, including women with some college education who earned $200 a month as domestic workers in the kingdom. Most of the Filipino male migrants whom we interviewed were skilled workers, ranging from mechanics to engineers, who commanded the highest comparative salaries. Despite this diverse mix of migrant workers, we documented surprisingly similar problems that cut across gender, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic lines, including a pattern of human rights abuse in the kingdom's criminal justice system. The subjects covered in this report make clear that comprehensive documentation of the conditions facing migrant workers in Saudi Arabia would be best served by conducting the research in the kingdom. In addition to the value of being able to speak directly with officials, sponsors, and employers, such research would allow us to meet with some of the thousands of migrant men and women in the kingdom's prisons and deportation centers whose stories need to be heard and told. An undetermined number of migrant workers have been sentenced to death and are awaiting execution. Independent human rights investigators should be permitted to talk to them about their interrogations and trials. There are also over thirty government labor offices throughout the kingdom where some workers file complaints against abusive employers, as well as "safe houses" where abused migrants are sheltered. In this report, we have changed the names of the migrant workers whom we interviewed, based on concern for their safety, should they decide to return to Saudi Arabia, and for the security of their relatives who were working in the kingdom at the time we conducted our interviews. The full names of these men and women are on file at Human Rights Watch. The only exception to this rule is cases of migrant workers who were executed or who have been sentenced to death. In such cases, their real names are provided. *** As of this writing, discussions were ongoing between Human Rights Watch and the Saudi government about access to the kingdom for the purpose of human rights research. We had access as an organization only once, in January 2003. During this visit, which was limited to two weeks, our representatives met in Riyadh with numerous senior government officials as well as Saudi lawyers, journalists, academics, other professionals, and members of the 120-member consultative council (majlis al-shura). But the terms of reference for this visit did not include field research. Without such access, Saudi Arabia remains on our list of closed countries for the purpose of human rights research. The alternative methodology used to prepare this report should indicate to the Saudi government that – despite the additional time and expense – Human Rights Watch is prepared to document human rights abuses, even if access to the kingdom is denied. Our strong preference, however, is to work in a more open and direct manner, with the active cooperation of the government. We hope that senior Saudi officials will see the merits of this approach and open the kingdom's doors to researchers from Human Rights Watch and other international human rights groups. Key Recommendations The most recent information from Saudi Arabia's ministry of labor indicates that expatriates in the kingdom total 8.8 million men and women, a significant number, given that the indigenous population is an estimated 18 million (see Chapter I). This report provides extensive documentation of the varieties of labor exploitation and human rights abuses that foreign workers face in the kingdom. The significant size of Saudi Arabia's expatriate population, and the serious nature of the problems that they often encounter, necessitate bold and innovative remedial actions from the government. The detailed recommendations of Human Rights Watch – to the government of Saudi Arabia, its various ministries, and other concerned international and regional parties – are presented in Chapter IX of the report. Among our key recommendations to the government of Saudi Arabia are the following: (1) Initiate an independent, thorough, and public national inquiry into the situation of migrant workers in the kingdom. Saudi authorities have never comprehensively and publicly assessed the realities that many migrant workers in the kingdom face. As a result, there is limited official and public awareness of the nature and scope of the problem. Accordingly, Human Rights Watch urges that His Royal Highness Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, First Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, should appoint an independent and impartial Royal Commission to investigate and report on the serious problems and abuses that migrant women and men in the kingdom face on a daily basis. As part of the commission's mandate, it should hold public hearings in all major cities throughout the kingdom. Migrant workers, and their families and advocates, should be invited to give testimony at these hearings, as should regional and international nongovernmental organizations with expertise on migrant workers issues and rights. The commission should be required by law to complete its inquiry within a defined period of time, and make its findings and recommendations public. (2) Take immediate action to inform all migrant workers in the kingdom of their rights under Saudi and international law. This report makes clear that large numbers of migrant workers are unaware of the rights that they have under existing law. Because such workers typically face language barriers and live in the kingdom for only a few years at a time, more concerted government efforts are necessary to inform them of their rights. Accordingly, we call on the government to promulgate by royal decree an enforceable "bill of rights" for migrant workers. It should be publicized widely in the kingdom, using print and broadcast media and other means of public outreach. The decree should be issued simultaneously in Arabic and all the languages of the countries of origin of the major migrant worker communities in the kingdom. This "bill of rights" should delineate, in a comprehensive and comprehensible manner, all the rights that are granted to migrant workers under the kingdom's laws and regulations. It should serve as a practical educational tool for workers and employers alike, and clarify legal and other ambiguities that lead to abusive treatment. (3) Impose significant penalties on Saudi employers and sponsors who exploit migrant workers and place them at risk. Pursuant to Saudi Arabia's international legal obligations, the use of forced or compulsory labor should be a specifically defined criminal offense under domestic law. In addition, substantial penalties should be imposed on employers who withhold the passports and residency permits of migrant workers, and those who charge illegal fees for official immigration documents. (4) Make domestic labor-law protections inclusive. One shortcoming that Saudi authorities should address urgently is the absence of legal protections for women and men employed in domestic service and agricultural work in the kingdom. Such individuals are excluded even from the flawed and limited labor protections currently in force under Saudi law. The protections of the kingdom's labor law should extend to all migrant workers, irrespective of their gender and job descriptions, however menial such jobs may be considered. (5) End the forced confinement of women migrant workers. The executive branch of government and consultative council (majlis al-shoura) should take immediate legislative steps to ensure that no migrant woman worker is held against her will at places of private or public employment and residence. Regulations to this effect should be promulgated as an urgent matter, and widely publicized to the Saudi public, using all print, broadcast, and other media. These regulations should impose substantial penalties on employers who continue the practice, and provide fair and equal compensation to the victims, commensurate with the length and severity of their confinement. (6) End the imprisonment of women and children for "illegal" pregnancies. End as an urgent matter the arrest and imprisonment of migrant and Saudi women and children who become pregnant voluntarily or because they were victims of sexual violence. Women and children currently in prison should be immediately released, and provided with social and other supportive services as required. (7) Address as an urgent matter the serious flaws in the kingdom's criminal justice system. The arrest and detention practices of the ministry of interior should be brought into immediate conformity withprovisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Anyone arrested as a criminal suspect in the kingdom should be informed of his or her rights under the kingdom's laws, including those set forth and guaranteed in the new criminal procedure code. This information should be provided orally and in writing, in languages that all suspects can understand. Effective judicial oversight of interior ministry personnel is urgently needed. Authorities should take immediate steps to ensure judicial supervision of the investigation of all criminal suspects, for the purpose of ending such practices as abusive interrogations, torture, and coerced confessions. Authorities should also make public detailed information about all persons, Saudi citizens and foreigners alike, who have been sentenced to death in the kingdom and are awaiting execution. The implementation of all death sentences should be suspended until it can be determined independently that the defendants were not tortured and their confessions were not coerced. A1 - Human Rights Watch,  Y1 - 2004/07/14/ KW - migrant workers KW - Migrant Workers KW - Migrant workers KW - Saudi Arabia KW - Exploitation UR - http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,HRW,,SAU,412ef32a4,0.html Y2 - 2013-03-28 ER - TY - NEWS T1 - Le Programme des aides familiaux résidants - Son impact sur les femmes philippines au Canada N2 - L'article décrit le Programme des aides familiaux résidants institué en 1992 par Citoyenneté et Immigration Canada (CIC). Il s'agit d'un programme d'immigration du gouvernement canadien drainant plusieurs femmes de pays sous-développés et majoritairement des Philippines. Celles-ci ont la possibilité d'obtenir le statut d'immigrante reçue après avoir travaillé 24 mois comme aide familialerésidante dans une période de 3 ans. Selon l'article, il s'agit d'une ségrégation des femmes philippines comme main-d'oeuvre bon marché contribuant au cycle de pauvreté de la communauté philippine au Canada. Le programme devient de plus en plus régressif et exploitant avec la mondialisation corporative. A1 - Solidarity Across Borders,  Y1 - 2004/// KW - Philippines KW - Exploitation KW - domestique KW - PAFR KW - abus JA - Solidarité sans frontières SP - 7 ER - TY - CPAPER T1 - A review of migration issues in Pakistan CY - Dhaka, Bangladesh PB - Collective for Social Science Research N2 - This paper aims to provide a strategic overview of issues relating to migration and poverty in Pakistan. According to 1998 census records, some 10 million people, or 8% of the population of Pakistan, consisted of internal or international migrants. Savings remitted by Pakistani migrants abroad constitute the largest single source of foreign exchange earnings for the country. In the early 1980s, this flow was equivalent to 10% of GNP. Currently, remittances are US$2.4 billion, or 4% of the GNP. A1 - Gandar, Haris Y1 - 2003/// KW - remittance KW - Migration issues KW - poverty in Pakistan KW - internal and international migrants UR - http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0903/Dhaka_CP_4.pdf Y2 - 2012-11-02 T2 - Development and Pro-poor Policy Choices in Asia ER - TY - BOOK T1 - International Labor migration institutions of Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka in Ferment the Philippines as Catalyst CY - Dhaka, Bangladesh PB - International Organization for Migration (IOM) N2 - International labor migration is an age old phenomenon. Due to the profound economic political and social factors, inter alia, of rapid population growth in many developing countries, failing development plans, increasing urbanization and environmental degradation, the management of this phenomenon has become more complex in the face of new challenges brought about by globalization. To the extend that international organizations like the ILO, IOM have had to consign international labor migration concerns to the “back-burner” due to the dilemma wrought by its inherent characteristics and the complex and sensitive nature of national sovereignty. Moreover, countries who conform to certain international rules not because the abide by the principles attached to these rules but because it is within their interests to conform to them. Thus, many labor sending and receiving member states of the ILO have failed to ratify various ILO Conventions, despite the fact that these instruments are designed to promote universal norms and standards and to protect the interest of workers when employed in other countries. IOM Dhaka commissioned this study to compare the institutional capacity of Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines only to realize that there were hardly any previous works done to provide a basis for such a comparison. The report strongly suggests that what happens within countries can turn out to be part of a much broader international process of political and economic change, that the unilateral decisions and actions of nations can influence events in the international arena in spite of the view of how international the world has become. It is further suggested that international labor migration institutions need more practical assistance than the rhetoric of intentions that past studies and manuals can provide. These countries need assistance in transforming the knowledge derived from studies into practical ways and means and for throughput processes to shepherd them through. All these are dealt with using the experience of the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to demonstrate how it managed to provide mechanisms to protect and promote the welfare of migrant of migrant workers despite the absence of international agreements and conventions. A1 - Achacoso, Tomas D Y1 - 2002/// KW - Fragmented Approach KW - Good governance KW - Bilateral labor arrangement KW - Policy making bodies KW - Intervention into actions UR - http://www.iom.org.bd/publications/11.pdf Y2 - 2012-11-03 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Are migrants chasing after the “Golden Deer”? CY - Dhaka, Bangladesh PB - Bengal Com-print N2 - The book is divided into 6 chapters. Chapter 1 is about international migration to labor-importing countries of Gulf Cooperation Countries. Chapter is about Contextual analysis of the flow of Bangladeshi workers to the Middle East and its-macro-economic impacts. Chapter 3 is about post migration situation analysis of migrant. Chapter 4 is about benefits and costs of working abroad. Chapter 5 is about remittance and development. Chapter 6 is about addressing policy issues. A1 - Yunus , Rita Afsar Mohammad A1 - Islam , A B M Shamsul Y1 - 2002/// KW - Development KW - remittance KW - Bangladesh KW - benefits and costs of migration KW - poverty UR - http://www.iom.org.bd/publications/3.pdf Y2 - 2012-10-29 ER - TY - EJOUR T1 - PHILIPPINES: GOOD PRACTICES FOR THE PROTECTION OF FILIPINO WOMEN MIGRANT WORKERS IN VULNERABLE JOBS N2 - This article is about overview of socio-economic context of overseas migration, general trends in migration, concerns and needs of women migrant workers. It analyzes the legislative framework relating to migration protection. It also examines the government migration policies and programmes. Finally, the paper also discusses about private and government initiatives protecting the welfare of migrant workers and their families. A1 - Villalba, Maria Angela “Mayan” C. Y1 - 2002/08/01/ KW - Philippines KW - Effective initiatives in Protecting women migrant workers UR - http://www.ilo.org/employment/Whatwedo/Publications/WCMS_117953/lang--en/index.htm Y2 - 2013-04-18 ER -