BBC on Asian workers in Middle East
On the weekend I highlighted an article by a Saudi Arabian journalist on the bad treatment of South Asians in the Middle East. BBC World Service’s Have Your Say programme have picked it up and are planning a programme on it tomorrow Thursday evening. I may feature somewhere.
I hope they can also get Chan’ad Bahraini on the show, having extensively highlighted the issue. I’ve also suggested to the BBC they invite a politician from the region on to the show so we can ask why governments there have made little progress in protecting worker rights.
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Filed in: Civil liberties, The World
you could also ask why Indians with same qualifications are payed waay below their western counterparts for same work. moreover many a times south asians are required to surrender their passports to their employers.
Sunny
Lets hope the BBC’s Have Your Say and blog activity can come together to highlight the plight of these migrant workers and the human rights abuses they are forced to endure.
The BBC criticizing Saudi Arabia? I can almost hear the fawning apologies to follow, already.
Worth mentioning this open letter by the Human Right Watch to the President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn in 2003:
As the World Bank recognized in its April 2003 report on Global Development Finance, remittances sent home by migrant workers reached $80 billion in 2002, up from $60 billion in 1998. These payments have become more important and stable sources of finance for developing countries than private lending or official development assistance.
Countries receiving large remittances include Bangladesh ($2.1 billion in 2001), Egypt ($2.9 billion), India ($10 billion), Indonesia ($1 billion), Jordan ($2 billion), Lebanon ($2.3 billion), Morocco ($3.3 billion), Pakistan ($1.5 billion), the Philippines ($6.4 billion), Sri Lanka ($1.1 billion) and Yemen ($1.5 billion).
The letter in full
Also, Ben Rivard at thi blog is doing some real good work.