Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

‘Unite to protect migrant workers’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Countries that send their labour force to the Gulf region should develop a mechanism to voice their concerns as a united front in order to protect the interests of the migrant workers, recommends an international conference on “networking for promoting the rights of the migrant workers in Gulf countries.”

The conference, jointly organised here recently by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) and the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity (Solidarity Centre), suggested that the existing forums such as the SAARC might also be used as a common platform to take up the problems being faced by the migrant workers.

According to Javita Narang, Solidarity New Delhi, and S. Irudaya Rajan of CDS, the conference stressed on the importance of ensuring a minimum standard wage for the South Asian labourers working in the Gulf region. The conference recommended that a feasible mechanism had to be developed to ensure such a wage structure for the migrant workers in accordance with their national standards.

The conference was part of the series of such initiatives organised by the Solidarity Centre in the background of the extensive reports of exploitation and harassment of migrant workers from South Asia, particularly from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in the Gulf countries. Delegates from Pakistan, Bahrain, the US and the UAE attended the two-day conference.

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