Comprehensive law a must to check labour trafficking

IOM official Laura Thompson tells The Daily Star

15 June 2010, 18:00 PM

Porimol Palma

IOM Deputy Director General Laura Thompson.Photo: STAR

A comprehensive anti-trafficking law, its enforcement, and cooperation among the labour-sending countries could largely help check labour trafficking, a phenomena rising in line with increased labour migration in recent times, IOM Deputy Director General Laura Thompson said. "Earlier, we used to say migrants' trafficking are mostly for women and children for sexual exploitation. And now men are very much exploited through labour trafficking," she said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Star. There are fake agencies and criminal networks hiring people for particular jobs abroad but leave them jobless, which is nothing but trafficking of labour, said Laura Thompson, who visited Bangladesh from June 8 to 10. "They [workers] are put in very precarious situations and not paid sometimes," she said, adding that smuggling and trafficking are manifestation of organised crimes just like those of drugs and arms traffickers. "It is the same network and we haven't been able to stop it." The observation of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) official came in the wake of a series of allegations that the workers hired by manpower agencies and brokers do not get the promised job abroad, are left without salaries and sometimes beaten or even locked in rooms. Recently, 39 Bangladeshi workers hired for jobs in Liberia returned home after being cheated. Bangladeshi seamen hired to work in Benin were left without salaries for months. The list of such cases in Libya, Malaysia, Singapore, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and more can go on and on. Presently, an estimated 7 million Bangladeshis work abroad and send home some $11 billion a year. Experts, however, say the existing regulatory framework is too inadequate to protect migrants' interests. Raising awareness among people vulnerable to trafficking and training customs and airport officials are crucial to check irregular migration, Laura said and also emphasised the need for a comprehensive law covering men, women and children. "When you don't have the legal framework, you cannot do anything when you accuse someone," said Laura, a former ambassador and permanent representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations. Law is not the solution, but a necessary element for prosecution, she said, adding that trained people are also needed to enforce it. But no country in this region has a comprehensive anti-trafficking legal system, she noted. Bangladesh has initiated drafting such a law, which is laudable, she added. Laura said that earlier people would migrate mainly to the global North, but now many are moving within the global South, meaning within Asia and Africa. Presently, 220 million people are migrants and the figure will rise. Also, there were countries that used to be only the hosts, but now many migrant-sending countries like India and Mexico are both migrant-sending and receiving countries. Women are now migrating to other countries on their own with independent decision. "Migration in the last 20 to 25 years has gone through a lot of changes that require new approaches to handle," Laura said. IOM is promoting regional consultative process throughout the world, she said and referred to the Colombo Process, an initiative of 11 Asian labour-sending countries aimed at protecting migrants' rights. "It is not preferable that you send 10 million people and 5 million are exploited. Rather, you send seven million and they all are protected," Laura said, adding that having dialogues between the sending and receiving countries is quite important to make the employers responsible for the violations of rights. She also called for productive use of remittances sent by the migrants so that it can create opportunities for jobs to help not only the families, but also the communities. "This needs education and we are doing that," she said.