By
Mahendra Subedi
Kathmandu: Labor migration in the South
Asian countries, except Bhutan and the Maldives, has become a key source of
foreign earning and the lifeline for South Asian economies.
Poverty--South Asia's worst malaise,
lack of infrastructure development, sudden rise in young population, greater
connectivity with the outer worlds due to globalization and, most importantly,
gap in wages have encouraged the 1.5 million plus people every year from the
region to leave for destination countries for earning.
Many economists and experts term the
labour migration a ‘slow poison’ based on the impacts on national economy and a
‘forced cup of tea’ due to lack of employment opportunities in the sending
countries while others argue labour migration as an unavoidable global
phenomenon claiming that it results in higher living standards and better
education for their children.
Like other SAARC nations, the Gulf
countries are the major destinations for around 2.5 million Nepali migrants
though Nepal has opened a total of 109 nations for foreign employment. Of them,
over 97 percent of the total Nepali migrants are working in Malaysia, Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The remittance amount send by
Nepali migrants is nearly 25 percent as the share of country’s GDP and received
by 56 percent households. In the last fiscal year alone, more than 492,000
Nepalis have left home for foreign employment in search of green pastures.
According to the official record, the
daily remittance inflow from official channel in Nepal is roughly Rs 2 billion
plus which is nearly seven times higher than official development assistance
and five times higher than export earnings.
In Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
remittances are larger than the countries' foreign exchange reserves revenues
from exports while remittance in India in 2013 was 70 billion US dollars--more
than the earning from country's software services exports, the World Bank said.
According to the World Bank, India
remained in the top position of remittance receiving countries with 70 billion
US dollars in 2013 while Pakistan brought in 15 billion US dollars and
Bangladesh 14 billion US dollars, securing their spots in the world’s top 10
remittance receiving nations.
Bangladesh has sent around 7 million
workers to over 140 countries since the mid-1970s mostly in the Middle East and
Southeast Asia while 1.7 million Sri Lankans are working abroad sending roughly
7 billion US dollars at home.
India, as one of the largest
labour-sending countries in the world has contributed the most with 22 percent
to Qatar's 1.2 million migrant workforces (equal to Pakistan) while the
Indians’ number in Saudi Arabia is nearly 2.5 million and nearly 3 million in
United Arab Emirates. Likewise, the number of Pakistani migrant workers is
sizable in the Gulf Nations and other parts of the world totaling more than 7
million.
Another SAARC member Afghanistan has
been using the labor migration as a contributing factor to poverty reduction,
employment generation and women empowerment. The newest SAARC member has the
vision to promote decent work for Afghan workers (men and women) overseas.
On such backdrop, the 18th SAARC Summit
is due to discuss the issues pertaining to migration and trafficking in humans
for the first time. The proposal is expected to witness extensive discussions
on making a common voice on labour migration.
Expert on labor migration and former
member of the National Planning Commission Dr Ganesh Gurung suggested that the 18th
SAARC Summit should focus on minimum standard wage and benefits by the labour
sending countries.
"If we can agree not to send the
workers on less than the fixed amount of wage and benefits, this could be a
large benefit to migrant workers," Dr Gurung argued. Stressing for a
meaningful discussion on labor migration in the 18th SAARC Summit,
Dr Gurung added, "SAARC will hold little meaning for large number of
workers who go from these countries if this Summit does not agree to discuss
this issue."
Likewise, Mr. Maurizio Busatti, Chief of
Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Nepal, says,
"As the entire South Asia is affected by and experiencing labour migration
mobility and share to a good extent the same dynamics challenges and poles of
attraction, the countries of this region could devise useful approaches to
migration of labour."
Asked
whether the SAARC nations could push for some policy reforms relating to
migrants' issues in the receiving countries, Dr Gurung said, "A collective
bargaining is possible because if SAARC nations do not send labourers to the
gulf countries, there will be a hue and cry.
This is possible if SAARC nations are
united." He even went on to say that Qatar would be unable to host the FIFA
World Cup in 2022 if the SAARC nations stop sending the migrant workers.
Busatti also observes the need for a
single voice in labour migration stating that this was certainly a desirable
option though the regional mobility is compounded by a number of sensitivities
linked to the complex geo-political scenario and this makes it difficult to
discuss migration and find a minimum common denominator at regional and
multilateral level.
"There could be some thought to get
up during the upcoming SAARC with an intra-regional labour migration protection
framework that could be practiced within the SAARC region to protect the rights
of the labour migrants within the region though not exactly the same format
like the ASEAN and the EU have some regional frameworks to regulate the
intra-regional migration movement," the Chief of Mission of IOM said.
Diaspora Coordinator of INF Paul Hagen
opines that the SAARC nations are required to make a common voice to make the
labour migration safer and dignified adding "If SAARC nations could
provide both internal and external migrant labourers' safety and secure ways to
get their earnings home would help lift the economies of the regional countries
involved."
Finally, raising the issue of labor
migration in the 18th SAARC Summit is a welcome step. Now, the SAARC
leaders should come up with the strategic plans to promote and safeguard the
human rights and dignity of the migrants so that only receiving country would
not be benefitted just by getting the cheap labourers from the SAARC region.
Besides, the SAARC nations are required to prepare a labor migration bond to
mobilize the large amount of remittances from their migrants in a bid to boost
up their economies. RSS
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