Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
Now he
says he cannot return to his hometown before he finds a way to repay the money
he borrowed to give the people-smugglers who ripped him off.
<P>"I can’t
go back," the 33-year-old told AFP.</P><P>His tale is repeated many times
over in Southeast Asian towns and villages, where men and women long for an overseas
job as a vehicle to haul their families out of poverty but only wind up being
cheated.</P><P>ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries reached
a landmark agreement at last weekend’s summit to protect the rights of Bartolome
and the millions of migrant workers like him, who form the backbone of many economies
across the region.</P><P>But while the accord’s intentions are good, it is far
from certain it will make a difference to the lives of many.</P><P>The pact outlines
a political commitment to protect the rights of the region’s burgeoning number
of migrant workers. But it is not legally binding.</P><P>"I hope it’s not
another toothless paper," Bartolome said from Kuala Lumpur.</P><P>Many men
and women have been able to improve their situations as migrant workers, finding
employment abroad and sending money back home in a cycle that has helped countless
numbers of families escape the grind of poverty.</P><P>But many others such as
Bartolome — not his real name — fall prey to illegal recruiters and syndicates
involved in human smuggling, or end up with abusive employers.</P><P>"A legally
binding framework within ASEAN that is comprehensive is still a long way off,"
said William Gois of Migrant Forum Asia, a non-governmental group that tries to
help migrant labourers.</P><P>"In the meantime there are hundreds of people
being deported every day from Malaysia and from Thailand," Gois said.</P><P>Bartolome,
a handyman and cook, borrowed about 2,000 dollars last year to pay a recruitment
agency in Manila for a job in New Zealand.</P><P>He only got his ticket at the
airport. And when he arrived there, the plane looked much smaller than one he
had flown on to the Middle East several years before.</P><P>In fact he was booked
on a budget airline — and one that did not fly to New Zealand at all. He was
surprised when asked to pay for his in-flight food and even more surprised when
the plane landed in the Malaysian state of Sabah.</P><P>Left with no money, he
and other recruits on board were forced to work at a remote palm oil plantation.</P><P>They
were paid only 10 Malaysian ringgit (2.85 US) daily to pick palm oil fruit. Food
was meagre and they were sometimes forced to snare snakes and monitor lizards
to supplement their diet.</P><P>With the help of a friend, Bartolome escaped to
the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in December. He is still there, looking for
a better job.</P><P>The Philippines is one of Southeast Asia’s main suppliers
of migrant workers, along with Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand are the major recipients of their labour.</P><P>The
ASEAN accord spells out the obligations of both labour supplying and receiving
countries, and calls for close monitoring for compliance by the ASEAN secretary
general.</P><P>But without legally enforceable rules, it is unclear whether the
agreement will be able to improve the conditions of the region’s vast travelling
workforce.</P><P>"I don’t think it will make a difference," said Gois.
"A lot of the palm oil plantation workers are lowly paid and undocumented."</P><P>Lilian,
a maid working in Singapore who declined to let her full name be used, wakes at
5 a.m. for her job as a domestic. She says she cannot go to bed until 1 a.m. and
remains on call the other four hours — every day.</P><P>"My body feels like
giving up but my family needs the money," she told AFP.</P><P>Most of her
monthly salary of 300 Singapore (almost 200 US) dollars goes to her husband and
three young children in the Philippines.</P><P>She said she could not send anything
home for the first six months, when she was paying off her debt to the recruitment
agency.</P><P>Leah, another maid working in Singapore, was not so lucky.</P><P>She
sought refuge at the Philippine embassy in November because of an abusive employer
— and was back at home before she could even send her first pay check.</P><P>"My
woman employer would slap me in the ears when I made a mistake," said the
24-year-old, now back in her hometown in the central Philippines.</P><P>She wanted
to lodge charges against her employer but that would have meant staying away from
home even longer.</P><P>"I was shouted at almost daily. I can do the manual
work but I cannot take the verbal abuse," Leah said. "I feel less than
a human being."</P><P><I>Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=63256</I>
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