“I want to go back to Muscat to earn as I am not getting a good job in my own country,” says 56-year-old Appukuttan who met his family in India after living miserably for 22 years as an undocumented worker in Muscat. All these years, he has missed the big moments of his personal life. […]
Ineffective complaint mechanisms coupled with missing coordination among grievance registration and redressing systems, and lack of awareness about their availability have been identified as major hurdles in access to justice for the migrant workers in a study. Conducted by the Punjab labour department with the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the study has […]
“You’re suffering from hepatitis C. So you can’t leave for Saudi Arabia,” tells the receptionist at a medical facility in the provincial metropolis to a migrant worker seeking reemployment in the oil kingdom. Anwar has earlier served as a cab driver in Riyadh for three years and has returned home a few months ago on […]
Under sustained international criticism Qatar has reformed its controversial laws governing migrant workers. But for significant improvement in labour conditions there have to be changes in the way the Nepal government and recruiters treat their own workers. After Qatar’s king approved an amendment to the law last week, more than 400,000 Nepali migrant workers, mostly hired for construction of […]
As the government sits on a draft law prescribing stricter punishment for human smugglers, the menace of trafficking people thrives, claiming lives of those traveling abroad in search of greener pastures. With the arrest of three more alleged human smugglers on Friday, the tally of those held for involvement in the ugly business has risen […]
Pushpa is an anomaly, but also a part of an increasing phenomenon, in which urban youths have one eye fixed on the Gulf countries and the other further west, on Europe and North America. After a month-long vacation, Pushpa Bajracharya flew back to Dubai on Thursday, to resume his work as a merchandiser at a […]