Abandon ‘patriachal’ regulations governing female migrant workers, new study urges
View(s):The Sri Lankan Government has been urged to implement a ‘zero’ fee scheme for workers seeking overseas employment, cancel the licences of errant agents and make exploitation or forced labour a serious criminal offence.It has also been asked to abandon sections of the law and regulations that discriminate against outbound women and favour the male spouse.These recommendations are contained in a recent desk and field study of the recruitment process for migrant workers undertaken by the Solidarity Centre, Sri Lanka. The study was undertaken in collaboration with the Community Development Services, Stand Up Movement, Centre for Human Rights and Community Development, Saviya Development Foundation and Beat of Nature and conducted in Colombo, Gampaha, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Galle and Kandy districts.
The government should review and update existing policies to reflect current trends and ensure that the non-discriminatory procedures detailed in such policies are not in any way superseded by ad hoc circulars which reflect the attitude of a patriarchal regime or individual parliamentarian/ official in charge of labour migration,” the study noted.Over 200,000 workers go to West Asia and other countries annually for employment with many forced to pay fees to secure a job, receive misleading contracts and undergo many hardships in the destination countries. While exploitation takes place, women are also compelled to get the consent of their husband to work abroad, a rule that doesn’t apply to men planning to migrate for work.
The report, released to coincide with International Migrants Day which was marked on Friday, said migrant workers should not be required to pay any recruitment fees and that the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) must cancel the licenses of brokers and recruitment agents that charge illegal recruitment fees from workers. As per recruitment procedures, it urged the formulation of a comprehensive mechanism for monitoring local and foreign recruitment agencies in countries of origin and destination; amendments to the SLBFE Act imposing stricter penalties with a focus on prosecution and cancellation of licenses for practices which exploit migrant workers; and amendments to the SLBFE Act to restructure the SLBFE Board to compulsorily include returnee migrant workers or their representatives.
“All exploitative recruitment practices which lead to trafficking or forced labour of migrant workers should be considered criminal offences under the Penal Code (Amendment) Act No. 16 of 2006,” it said while urging the creation of a mechanism for the anti-trafficking task force to use the Standard Operational Procedures in investigating, gathering evidence and prosecution of traffickers of migrant workers and the protection of victimised migrant workers. Sub agents, it said, must be licensed and registered with both the SLBFE and the affiliated recruitment agency. A transparent and practical mechanism for implementing the National Labour Migration Policy and the Code of Ethical Conduct needs to be formulated, it said.
The report said “restrictive provisions which cause workers to migrate through irregular channels as undocumented workers should be urgently reviewed and replaced by effective legal protections”.The study pointed out that gender discriminatory requirements for migrant women domestic workers such as age restrictions, family background report, etc “need to be abolished as they provide no actual protection against abuse in host countries nor protect children left behind against violations”. It called for labour migration recruitment to be governed and facilitated by Government to Government Agreements (G2G) which protect the rights of migrant workers, while urging that existing agreements with host countries be upgraded to legally binding bilateral agreements which provide human and labour rights to migrant workers.