South Asian Labour Migration and Maritime Migrants

The labour migration from South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka) has the highest number.  It is estimated that 13.9 million migrant workers are from South Asia.  The migrant workers have been seeking employment opportunities mostly in the Gulf countries and Malaysia.  The migrant workers’ movement has been facilitated by the government formally and people have been also moving with the individual decision by taking risks in countries where the government does not encourage people's movement. The migrant workers have been facing several challenges in the course of migration: pre-departure, during the employment period and returning back. The migrant workers have not been well informed about the destination countries, provided clear contracts stating the remunerations, nature of work etc. The migrant workers face several discriminations during the course of employment and harassment. The workers fall under the vicious circle of migration as the workers borrow money to enter the labour market and are not able to pay it back. The workers have been forced to seek another destination or better job after returning back home or leaving the job and decide to stay undocumented workers in the destinations. The returnee migrant workers also face challenges in getting employment back at home. In the majority of the case, the workers remain for a long period of time in the destination and spend their productive working period and it is difficult to adjust and initiate entrepreneurship at home. There are no recognition and social security schemes for migrant workers at home. This shows that migrant workers have been facing several challenges in the course of labour migration. 

The labour migrants from South Asia take different routes like land and sea to reach their destination countries of work and employment. The discussion on people's movement via land has been discussed and regulated. However, there is limited discussion in South Asia about the maritime migration focusing on the Bay of Bengal and using the Mediterranean migration from South Asia to multiple destinations. It is essential to generate discussions on the approaches to understanding the migrants' movement via different routes and the vulnerabilities that workers face through maritime migration. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the situation of migrant workers in the destination countries. Many migrant workers have faced joblessness, wage theft, not ritual of contracts and health-related vulnerabilities. In addition, the women migrant workers face worse situations in terms of violence and ill-treatment as most of the women migrant workers secure a job as domestic workers. COVID-19 posed new kind of challenges to the migrant workers. In the case of Nepal, the migrant workers return back and are not able to pay the loan at home.  The government facilitated the return of the migrant workers and some of them have to pay a large amount of money for the flights and remain in quarantine centres.  The migrant workers were stigmatized as they were considered the carrier of viruses from other countries. The government claims that it has devised better policies to facilitate and provide support to migrant workers. The government of Nepal is also the state party of several international conventions or declarations regarding migrant workers including the Global Compact on migrant workers.  However, the implementation part remains weak in the national context. It is essential to discuss and empower the civil society organization to monitor and observe the GCM constructively.

The Calcutta Research Group and the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna  [under its project 'Justice, Protection and Government of the People: A Two Year Research and Orientation Programme on Protection and Democracy in a Post-COVID World (2021-2023)] in collaboration with the Nepal Institute of Peace and Alliance for Social Dialogue have conceptualised this three-day summer camp in a dialogue-workshop pattern where activists associated with NGOs, INGOs, human rights activists, human rights defenders for migrants and refugees at sea, migrant labour union activists, legal activists, scholars, from different parts of South Asia in addition to Europe, and the Indo-Pacific region will be joining the Meet on 'South Asian Labour Migration and Maritime Migrants' in Kathmandu from May 21-23, 2022. The focus of this summer camp will be to frame a policy draft through the consultative and interactive meet on the governance of the labour migration scenario and protection offered to the returnee labour migrants etc.