Enabling Access to Justice: A CSO Perspective on the Challenges of Realising the Rights of South Asian Migrants in the Middle East
In 2015-2016, the GAATW International Secretariat undertook a project called the ‘South Asia – Middle East Access to Justice Project’ (SAME A2J Project) as part of a larger initiative, ‘Addressing Labour Trafficking of South Asian Migrant Workers in the Middle East.’ The objective of the SAME A2J Project was to identify cases in which migrant workers who had travelled to the Middle East as temporary labour migrants were trafficked, and to identify the barriers those workers faced accessing justice. The rationale for the project was a perception within GAATW that migrant workers from South Asia who were coerced, defrauded or deceived into situations of severe exploitation were rarely treated as trafficked persons and rarely received an adequate remedy.
A total of thirteen partner organisations from seven countries (Bangladesh, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Nepal and Sri Lanka) participated in the project. This report aims to capture one area of learning that emerged from the project: the barriers that project partners experience or observe when supporting migrant workers to access justice. Although specific barriers to justice may differ between countries, and even regions within countries, project partners identified many in common. These include legal and operational barriers, practical barriers, social and cultural barriers, as well as barriers within the organisations assisting migrant workers.
Governments are responsible to tackle human trafficking and protect and assist trafficked persons. Civil society, for its part, is responsible for monitoring states’ compliance with their obligations and mandates as defined in national and international legislation. To do so, it is necessary to have accurate information how governments implement these policies.
In 2016, Fundación la Paz in Bolivia, Corporación Espacios de Mujer in Colombia and ECPAT in Guatemala, together with the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), carried out an assessment of the implementation of anti-trafficking legislation in the three countries. What we found was that there was still a significant gap between the rights that trafficked persons are entitled to ‘on paper’ and the services that they receive in practice.
The assessment allowed us to systematise the available information on human trafficking in the three countries, giving clarity about the responsibilities of each governmental body and the degree of compliance. Although policies can be improved, it would be a good starting point for governments to at least fulfil their existing obligations.
In the past several decades globalisation, unequal development between and within countries, and conflict and environmental degradation, have prompted unprecedented levels of international migration. It is estimated that there are currently nearly 250 million migrants worldwide, half of whom are women. In developed countries, demographic changes, such as aging societies, a larger female workforce, and labour market shortages prompted by a move towards service-oriented economies have created a demand for (low-wage) female workers, especially in the hospitality and care work sectors, and the entertainment sector. In developing countries, economic restructuring and industrialisation have led to the loss of traditional livelihoods, with a disproportionate effect on women, pushing many to seek work outside their communities. At the same time migration policies have not responded to this change in labour market supply and demand, leading to increasingly precarious migration and work for many women, especially those with lower education and social status.
In the past 20 years, feminists, including GAATW, have tried to bring attention to the violence, abuse and exploitation that women experience in the process of their labour migration. GAATW has tried to stress women’s perspectives, and had detailed the unintended consequences of protectionist policies like the anti-trafficking initiatives undertaken by states in ‘Collateral Damage’ back in 2007. However, the conversation about trafficking has backfired and contributed to further violating the rights of migrating women. Governments of destination countries have restricted migration opportunities, especially for low-wage workers, and increased border controls, while origin countries have placed restrictions on women’s mobility, to ‘protect’ them from trafficking. However, instead of protecting the migrant women workers, these restrictions have led to a market for clandestine and debt-financed migration, leading to the very vulnerabilities including risk of violence and trafficking that they were intended to prevent.
Across South Asia women leave their homes in the hope of improving their economic and social status and securing better lives and livelihoods. South Asian countries actively promote migration as an employment option and a foreign exchange earner but at the same time they fail in their responsibility to protect the rights of their migrant workers and citizens. Both countries of origin and destination have weak labour laws with many female-dominated jobs falling outside the purview of labour laws and regulations.
The media play a crucial role in shaping public perception about migrants and influencing migration policies. In South Asia migration is a hot topic for the media, however, most reports tend to be unbalanced and sensationalised. While men are portrayed as workers and active agents seeking to improve their lives, women are too often presented as vulnerable, passive victims of abuse. Migrant women’s immense contribution to their family and society, as well as their strength, courage and resilience in the process of migration, are rarely highlighted. In response, many South Asian countries enact protectionist restrictions on women’s mobility rather than measures to protect and strengthen their rights.
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In 2015-2016, the GAATW International Secretariat undertook a project called the ‘South Asia – Middle East Access to Justice Project’ (SAME A2J Project) as part of a larger initiative, ‘Addressing Labour Trafficking of South Asian Migrant Workers in the Middle East.’ The objective of the SAME A2J Project was to identify cases in which migrant workers who had travelled to the Middle East as temporary labour migrants were trafficked, and to identify the barriers those workers faced accessing justice. The rationale for the project was a perception within GAATW that migrant workers from South Asia who were coerced, defrauded or deceived into situations of severe exploitation were rarely treated as trafficked persons and rarely received an adequate remedy.