Migrant workers deserve far better

Migrant workers deserve far better

Migrant workers contribute significantly to various industries in Southeast Asia, particularly labour-intensive sectors. In Thailand, the seafood supply chain relies on thousands of workers from Myanmar, while Malaysia's rubber glove industry employs workers from Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, and also Myanmar.

Despite the obvious need, the regulatory framework for labour migration, notably in fishing and seafood processing, is often weak. Countless workers are recruited through irregular and informal channels.

While there have been important improvements in recent years, workers still report a lack of written contracts, underpayment or withholding of wages, other types of wage theft, and coercion or involuntary work.

Migrant workers, numbering some 10 million, have been the main source of the recent resurgence of the coronavirus in countries including Malaysia and Thailand. This has forced governments to confront the flaws of the low-wage labour model they have relied on for decades. Raising the living and working standards of migrant workers must be part of any effective long-term public health solution.

Pandemic-fuelled demand for rubber gloves has been a boon for manufacturers in Malaysia. But major Covid outbreaks among their workers have exposed overcrowded conditions in dormitories.

According to the Ministry of Human Resources, 91% of Malaysia's more than 1.5 million documented migrant workers live in accommodation that does not meet minimum housing standards. Factories of Top Glove Corp, one of the world's largest suppliers, were identified as one of the major sources of infections in the latest outbreak.

Authorities raided dormitories at Top Glove plants in November after discovering thousands of infections, and they are also seeking to charge the glove maker Brightway Holdings with breaking housing standards laws.

In Thailand, migrant workers in the seafood hub of Samut Sakhon have become the main source of a recent wave of infections. Some of the estimated 5 million migrant workers in Thailand have some social protections, but those working in markets or factories and living in cramped shared rooms are at greater risk of contracting the virus.

The government has blamed the latest outbreak on the employment of illegal migrants and has vowed to crack down on the people who smuggle them into the country. This will not be easy since most of those who make smuggling possible are on the public payroll -- police, soldiers and civil servants.

Without real efforts to address their plight, migrant workers could prove to be a key risk to the region's ability to shake off the pandemic.

Singapore is a good example. After appearing to contain the virus early last year, authorities were blindsided by a surge in cases in crowded foreign worker dorms, prompting a nationwide lockdown. The city-state has since brought the outbreak under control, but workers' movements remain very tightly controlled.

Now Singapore is trying to build back better, which includes proper treatment of migrant workers in light of the huge contribution they make to its economy. The number of dormitory cases has since fallen to near zero. But serology testing has shown that nearly half of the 323,000 workers living in dorms were at one stage infected.

Singapore has committed to building new dorms that ensure more space, lower occupancy and better ventilation to improve living standards. The Malaysian government has also pledged to raise living standard of migrant workers.

Thailand, meanwhile, has begun to offer unemployment insurance to many registered migrant workers, and is actively working to regularise undocumented workers. But effective border control is critical, particularly to ensure a successful vaccination programme.

Ideally, migrant workers should have the right to full protection, and everyone involved should recognise this from the very start of the process, such as during recruitment in countries of origin. That would help reduce opportunities for abuse and corruption.

In destination countries, government agencies, recruiters and employers must ensure robust protection for all migrant workers for the sake of the economy and society.

Laws, regulations and guidelines must be communicated to everyone, including the workers, in forms that they can understand. Agents and recruiters, as well as workers, must all clearly understand their rights and obligations.

Small steps matter and concerted efforts need to be taken. The responsibility to uphold fundamental rights falls on everyone, and this should be realised by all stakeholders -- governments, employers, recruitment agencies and civil society.

Without a wholesale change in attitudes toward marginalised communities, Southeast Asian countries are unlikely to be able to get the pandemic fully under control and protect themselves against future outbreaks.

Nareerat Wiriyapong

Acting Asia Focus Editor

Acting Asia Focus Editor

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