South Asia-Gulf Migratory Corridor: Impending Challenges
The Covid-19 pandemic has rerouted global migration patterns, restructured migratory corridors, and remapped the fate of millions of migrants and their families across the globe in an unprecedented manner.
By S Irudaya Rajan &
Ginu Zacharia Oommen
The Covid-19 pandemic has rerouted global migration patterns, restructured migratory corridors, and remapped the fate of millions of migrants and their families across the globe in an unprecedented manner. Thousands of migrants had to leave GCC with out salaries, residual arrears, retirement benefits, and even compensation for relatives of migrant workers, who had died since the outbreak of Covid19 have not being paid by the employers. The employers, particularly construction companies, have used the crisis as an opportunity for mass retrenchment of migrant labourers without paying their wages or allowances. The Overseas Pakistani Foundation (OPF) and the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis are also working with their foreign missions to recover the salary dues and benefits.
The South Asia-Gulf migratory corridor is the largest migratory corridor in the world and South Asians account for nearly 15 million in the Gulf. According to the World Bank, in 2019 South Asian countries received remittances to about a total of nearly US$140 billion, out of which India received US $83.1 billion, Pakistan 22.5, Bangladesh 18.3, Nepal 8.1 and Sri Lanka 6.7 respectively. The South Asian labour force forms the backbone of the Gulf economies, but has had to go knocking on doors for their basic necessities and food. The pandemic, the shutdown of companies, tightening of borders, and the exploitative nature of the Kafala sponsorship system have all aggravated the already existing miseries of the South Asian migrant workers.
The hapless South Asian workforce has become the ‘disposable migrants’ who remain without any safety net, social security protection, welfare mechanisms, or labour rights. Thousands have left their host countries empty-handed, via the Vande Bharat Mission and other chartered flights. The unfortunate events are reminiscent of the plight of migrant labourers who had been evacuated during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, as revealed during our field research in Kuwait a while back. The Gulf countries with limited health infrastructure could not cater sufficiently to the needs of the migrant population affected by Covid19.
Indians constitute the largest segment of the South Asian work force with nearly 9 million followed by 5 million Bangladeshis, 3 million Pakistanis, 1 million each Nepalese and Sri Lankans. The spike of Covid-19 in the labour camps has mainly been due to overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions. However, as the COVID crisis and response unfolded in the Gulf countries, the most neglected segment turned out to be the migrant women domestic workers, whose untold miseries heightened in the present volatile situation.
The explosive and volatile situation in the GCC countries has forced the Indian government to repatriate NRIs through the non-schedule Vande Bharat Mission. At present, the government of India has repatriated nearly 9 lakhs NRIs from various International destinations. Simultaneously, other countries in the region, like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka have also been repatriating their citizens from various labour destination countries.
Pakistan also repatriated migrants from Gulf alone through special PIA flights. The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis
Pakistan also repatriated migrants from Gulf alone through special PIA flights. The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development launched a special portal to assist stranded migrants. The Supreme Court of Nepal has issued an interim order directing the government to repatriate stranded migrants with government money, through the Migrant Workers Welfare fund and reimburse flight tickets of those migrants who had returned on their own. Bangladesh has also been repatriating its workers with the support of Bangladesh Air Force Welfare Trust from GCC, Malaysia, and Maldives due to the immense pressure from the host countries. The Bangladesh government has also distributed medicines, relief, and emergency supplies to the distressed migrants abroad. Sri Lanka has started its repatriation efforts from mid-May with ferrying of migrants from Kuwait.
The countries of origin are now faced with greater challenge to rehabilitate, reintegrate, and resettle the return migrants. To facilitate such rehabilitation the Indian government has announced the SWADES programme, but quite uncertain about the actual implementation. Simultaneously, Kerala, which is the largest beneficiary of international migration, has announced Dream Kerala initiative to reintegrate and utilise the multifaceted resources of the migrants. Bangladesh has announced a special package for the resettlement of return migrants and provided each migrant with Taka 5000 on arrival, 3 to 7 lakh takas as loan to launch individual self employment projects, and 3 lakh takas for the deceased who had died abroad during the pandemic. The Overseas Employment Corporation has come out with special programmes to upgrade the skills of returnees in Pakistan.
The past three major crises in the Gulf – the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the global economic crisis, and Nitaqat in Saudi Arabia – had not triggered massive return migration. The unprecedented nature of Covid-19 along with the fluctuation of oil prices, however, has triggered unpredictable levels of reverse migration. In the past high unemployment among the natives, economic crisis, demographic imbalance, and particularly the Arab spring had triggered the movement for nationalisation of labour in the GCC countries. Now, nationalisation and anti-migrants’ sentiments have peaked in the GCC. Countries like Oman and Saudi Arabia have subsidised private companies in order to prevent native lay-offs. As mentioned above, the origin countries were both directly and indirectly pressurised by the GCC government to repatriate their citizens once Covid-19 cases began increasing in labour camps. Furthermore, the recent discussion of the expat quota bill by the Kuwait National Assembly is intrinsically connected to the growing discontent against the migrants by the native population and also to the concerns of GCC governments regarding growing demographic imbalance. However the implementation of the nationalisation process is highly problematic due to the stigma attached to certain sections of job and also with the influence of ‘royal sheikh culture’. Paradoxically, the migrants sending countries are caught between the promotion of migration and protection of migrant’s rights, in increasingly hostile receiving countries. The UN convention on protecting the rights of migrants and migrant families has been signed only by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Hence, the need of the hour is a comprehensive migration management system for both sending and receiving countries. Ironically none of the South Asian countries except Sri Lanka has an adequate migration policy. Therefore present pandemic has given an opportunity to voice the genuine rights of the South Asian migrants and to bring the South Asia –Gulf migratory corridor within the ambit of SAARC, ILO and UN conventions and charter.
(S. Irudaya Rajan is Professor, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, & Member , Kerala Government Highlevel committe to study the impact of Covid 19. Ginu Zacharia Oommen is a Member of the Kerala Public Service Commission and Former Visiting Professor at Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’homme(FMSH), Paris)
