|~||~||~|When a young construction worker decides to hang himself from the roof of his labour camp toilet, who’s fault is it?
Does the blame lie with the labour agent who hired him, or the contractor who hired the labour agent, or the developer who hired the contractor?
Clearly, people commit suicide for all sorts of reasons, but debt normally figures in the cases involving expatriate construction workers in the Gulf. And that is not idle supposition.
The notes left behind and the testimony of co-workers, point to remarkably similar circumstances.
The root of this problem does not only lie in the building sites of the Middle East, but in the villages and cities of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and many other regions throughout the Indian sub-continent.
It is here that unscrupulous labour agents hire and hoodwink labourers and tradesmen into jobs on construction sites in the Gulf.
Many will not see their first pay packet for months. Some
won’t see it at all.
The last year has seen the launch of a myriad of euphemistically named ‘human rights’ committees across the region.
Few have made a real impact to the status quo on site and in the labour camps. There has been a lot of talk of ‘blacklisting’ the rogue firms, but what does this mean, how has it been applied, and which companies have been penalised in a meaningful way?
It is a situation the industry can no longer ignore and to do so would be a particularly tragic case of emperor’s new clothes syndrome.
The prospect of a new government office being established in India to monitor the problems encountered by Indian workers in the Middle East, appears encouraging.
Recently appointed minister, Vayalar Ravi, said that his first priority would be to deal with the treatment of expatriate labourers working in the Gulf region.
To do that effectively he should begin at home, and the mandatory registration of recruitment agencies involved in the placement of construction workers in the Middle East, would be a good start.
Sean Cronin
Editor||**||
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