BANGLADESHI domestic workers in the Middle East are forced to work more than eight hours per day as they are not covered by local labour laws. For the same reason they cannot claim extra wages for working extra hours. Employers usually confiscate their passports for which they cannot move freely. The employers use them as modern day slaves. According to the BMET, about 70 per cent of 1.20 crore Bangladeshi workers migrated to the ME since 1976. Over 90 per cent of them are domestic workers including housemaids, cleaners, drivers, gardeners and car washers.
It has been known for some time that job contracts alone could protect the rights of the workers. The existing arbitrations in the ME countries including Kuwait function as quasi-judicial courts to help the migrants get their dues and compensations. Migration experts said that under international pressure, Bahrain and Qatar agreed to provide protection to domestic migrant workers by making new laws.
Bangladesh should ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO Convention 189) on domestic workers. The ILO convention would not only help protect the rights of domestic workers in Bangladesh, but also in those GCC countries. Domestic workers were denied decent wages, proper working hours, accommodation, maternal and weekly leave. The government should immediately ratify the ILO Convention 189 and embassies could take legal steps against the errant employers who abuse Bangladeshi female migrant workers.
We can also prepare a blacklist of all recruiters who were involved in the sending of workers to places where they were sexually or physically abused. A national database involving such employers and recruiters should be prepared and made available online to protect future workers from further harassment.
It is unfortunate that even now much of the Middle Eastern peoples think of Bangladesh as a place of cheap labour which exists to serve the whims of the Middle Eastern nations. Countries like Saudi Arabia have enforced rules for agents which stipulate that a certain percentage of workers who are sent must be female. We must stop sending our female labourers outside the country to prevent their sexual and mental abuse at the hands of rapacious employers. This is most essential to prevent them from being abused.
