The shattered dreams
Domestic servants are often subjected to various kinds of abuses
Ayla Marisse G Ginete
Contributor
The Middle East, which is in the midst of a construction boom, has been the destination of choice for several men and women from all over the world looking for jobs. Many though end up being cheated by travel agents and manpower agencies.
Thousands from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines come to Bahrain to work as labourers or domestic servants, but are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude when faced with exorbitant recruitment and transportation fees, withholding of their passports, restrictions on their movement, non-payment of wages, and physical or sexual abuse.
The shattered dreams
Domestic servants are often subjected to various kinds of abuses
Ayla Marisse G Ginete
Contributor
The Middle East, which is in the midst of a construction boom, has been the destination of choice for several men and women from all over the world looking for jobs. Many though end up being cheated by travel agents and manpower agencies.
Thousands from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines come to Bahrain to work as labourers or domestic servants, but are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude when faced with exorbitant recruitment and transportation fees, withholding of their passports, restrictions on their movement, non-payment of wages, and physical or sexual abuse.
It is reported that many women from Thailand and Eastern Europe are also believed to be trafficked to Bahrain for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labour.
The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for example reports that it assisted 154 Thai women return to Thailand, many of who are believed to be victims of trafficking.
Approximately 60 per cent of the workforce is made up of foreign workers, and in many cases they have arrived in the country under the sponsorship of an employer and then switched jobs while continuing to pay a fee to their original sponsor. This practice has made it difficult to monitor and control the employment conditions of domestic and other workers.
Unskilled foreign workers can become indentured servants and often lacked the knowledge to exercise their legal right to change employment. In numerous instances, employers withheld salaries from their foreign workers for months and even for years, and refused to grant them the necessary permission to leave the country. The government and the courts generally worked to rectify abuses if they were brought to their attention, but they otherwise focused little attention on the problem. The fear of deportation or employer retaliation prevented many foreign workers from making complaints to the authorities.
The government worked to decrease instances of abuse by passing a law imposing a BD500 to BD1,000 fine for employers found guilty of forced labour. Claims of runaway workers in the country have dropped dramatically since 2003. The new rules require sponsors to pay a BD100 deposit per employee for each report of a runaway.
Unfortunately labour laws do not apply to domestic servants. Numerous reports that domestic servants, especially women, were forced to work 12 or 16-hour days, given little time off, were malnourished, and were subjected to verbal and physical abuse, including sexual molestation and rape. Between 30 to 40 per cent of the attempted suicide cases handled by the government’s psychiatric hospitals were foreign maids.
There are approximately 50,000 foreign housemaids working in the country who are predominantly of Sri Lankan, Indonesian, Indian, Bangladeshi and Filipino origins. During the year, there were several incidents of seriously abused housemaids reported in the Press. Housemaids who have no embassy representation in the country (Indonesian and Sri Lankan) are often subjected to the worst types of physical and sexual abuse. With no diplomatic mission to protect them and no established victim assistance shelter, police have often returned runaway housemaids to abusing employers.
Up to half of low and unskilled expatriate workers were subjected to contract substitution and this was often due to the duplicity of recruiting agents in the worker’s home country. Victims of trafficking experienced withholding of passports by employers, alteration of contracts without their consent, non-payment of salaries, inadequate meals, physical abuse, and/or extremely long working hours.
Frequently, human traffickers, including some from influential families, tricked new workers into paying up to BD450 for fraudulent visas and non-existent jobs. The government has taken measures to fight this illegal practice. The Ministry of Labour more than doubled its number of labour inspectors to investigate reports of visa abuse.
Although the government still has not opened a shelter to house victims of trafficking, the government has taken steps forward, such as allocating a budget and approving a site. The Government of Bahrain should take active measures to ensure that this shelter is opened soon. The government does not otherwise provide shelter, medical or psychological care, or legal aid to victims of trafficking.
Some illegal foreign workers are detained and deported without adequate protection.
The government inter-agency committee coordinated the efforts of various ministries to help foreign workers. Hotlines are available to register complaints from foreign workers, but currently operate only during working hours. The government has instructed police not to return foreign workers to their employers if there is a risk of violence against the worker. Bahrain should significantly improve its protection efforts by extending the hours of hotline operations, and should refrain from deporting victims of trafficking.
During the year, Bahrain made some progress in investigating and prosecuting traffickers. Bahrain does not have a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, and did not enact draft legislation that criminalises all forms of trafficking, although this legislation may be enacted soon. Other sections of the criminal code can be used to prosecute trafficking offenses, but Bahrain did not report any prosecutions or convictions this year.
Despite reports that the Public Prosecutor’s office received 92 cases this year, the government did not provide evidence that these cases were ever prosecuted. The Ministry of Labour employs mediation practices to resolve complaints before they rise to the level of legal action. The government has supported anti-trafficking training of law enforcement agencies, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, NGO representatives, and employers through workshops. In addition, labour inspectors closed three recruitment agencies for labour violations and placed one on probation. The government should enact its draft legislation and increase investigations and criminal prosecutions of traffickers and recruitment agencies complicit in trafficking.
Bahrain made some progress in its efforts to prevent trafficking in persons. The government distributed multi-lingual brochures detailing workers’ rights and assistance resources at airports, health centres, and foreign embassies. The Ministry of Labour also advertised two hotlines in the English-language newspaper. In the duration of 2005 and 2006, the Ministry of Labour conducted seminars, in which both management and labourers participated, at 13 companies at which problems had been reported. To prevent the non-payment of wages, the ministry is working with the banking sector to establish bank accounts for foreign workers so that employers can electronically transfer the workers’ paychecks.
The Embassy of the Philippines reported that 210 distressed Filipino workers were repatriated in the first six months of the year. The workers claimed that they faced a range of problems including maltreatment, physical and sexual abuse, and non-payment of salary. The Philippine Embassy’s shelter for victims of abuse reported that it received 466 individuals (mostly women) who ran away from their sponsors for reasons of alleged abuse. Statistics on other nationalities were not available.
Several NGOs provided assistance to trafficking victims with the government’s approval. They include the MWPS, The Art of Living Foundation, the Indian Community Relief Fund, and the BHRWS. The MWPS, which operated a shelter for victims, reported that it received up to 20 pleas of help from expatriate workers in distress every month. On average, the MWPS said that 40 per cent of the cases constituted severe abuse.
Article from: Newspaper- www.BahrainTribune.com