Call to protect migrant workers from exploitation

Migrant workers in Southern Africa contribute to the development of their host countries but cannot rely on laws to protect them from exploitation and discrimination, migration specialists told IRIN. Their plight was under discussion this week in Pretoria, the South African capital, by representatives from business, government and labour, brought together by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). "Farm workers are particularly vulnerable with some employers firing them on pay day to avoid paying them," Vincent Williams of the Southern African Migration Project said. He alleged that sometimes, the police and farm managers colluded to deport workers just before pay day. "They don't have recourse to the Labour Court. They are invariably without documents and don't want to make a fuss," Williams said. "Most migrant workers' conditions are terrible. Conditions in the mining sector are well documented and while there have been some changes to the hostels, with better facilities, the essence of a single male breaking his back for 11 months of the year then being sent home, continues." He said migrant workers still battled to obtain work permits. The most vulnerable were undocumented farm and construction workers, and people employed in the hospitality industry who worked long hours in difficult conditions with no benefits or job security. In South Africa, although they are afforded protection under the labour law and the country's constitution, "in practise this rarely happens", Williams said. Violations of people's rights were often subtle. For example, miners on one-year contracts could suddenly find they were "no longer needed" when they contract a serious illness like tuberculosis. "Without policies and laws on working conditions and welfare benefits we are creating incentives for people to subvert people's rights," he said. "Almost every adult in the region" has a parent or grandparent who has migrated for work, Williams noted. People living in countries stricken by the regional drought had also been on the move. However, Williams said that although some moved from country to country, most of the migration was by impoverished people who had little money and moved to cities in their own country. Although large numbers of people came to South Africa with the end of apartheid in 1994, "at least half" of these people have left, he said. "They just came to see what opportunities there were and found that unemployment was high here and left." He noted that although there was a perception that "thousands" of Zimbabweans were flooding into South Africa, there had been no proper studies yet on the subject, and an anticipated influx following the disputed March presidential poll had not materialised. Echoing Williams' call for migrant workers rights, Arnold Chitembo, a senior Southern African Development Commununity official responsible for employment and labour issues said: "They contribute so much yet they are seen as people taking jobs from the locals and they are viewed in a negative sense rather than as contributors." Chitembo has lobbied against the term "illegal immigrants" for undocumented workers, and wants it replaced with a neutral term that "recognises that they have rights". The Pretoria meeting was also aimed at addressing the ratification of the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. Described as one of the seven most important human rights instruments in the world, it sets out the rights of all migrant workers, including those without documents. "It has taken more than 10 years, and 19 countries have ratified it - nine in Africa. Only one more ratification is needed to bring it into force," said Patrick Taran, senior migration specialist with the ILO.