A report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2021 highlighted that globally, India has the highest number of international migrants residing abroad.
India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, on Friday revealed that the government has rescued over 130 Indians from Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, after they were lured in for fake lucrative job opportunities in the information technology sector in Thailand. The workers were allegedly scammed and forced to enter the neighboring countries without valid visas, and were then held captive in these countries and forced to commit cyber frauds.
Bagchi added that some Indians were still in Myanmar police custody for questioning, and their return is yet to be processed. This is not the first time that unregistered recruitment agents from abroad have scammed vulnerable Indians into making dangerous overseas journeys with the promise of well paying jobs. In fact, a report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2021 highlighted that globally, India has the highest number of international migrants residing abroad.
Furthermore, last month, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K Stalin emphasized upon the issue of 300 Indians being illegally held in Myanmar in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded urgent intervention of the union government to secure their release. 50 of them were Tamils.
Most Indians seeking unauthorized and irregular routes to migrate abroad are often in a desperate need of finding decent jobs and are thus vulnerable to exploitation by their employers and recruiters.
First and foremost, they are often forced to pay exorbitant fees and brokerages to recruiters, which in turn forces them into a vicious debt trap. As most of these migrants are absorbed in semi-skilled or unskilled professions abroad, they earn low wages and are unable to even cover the expenditures incurred in migration and international travel. This often results in a precarious condition of debt bondage or forced labour.
Secondly, since the workers are tagged illegal immigrants in a foreign land, they are less likely to voice their grievances or pursue remedies for abuses faced by them. Thus, they continue to suffer poor working conditions, denial of fair wages, and even unfair hiring practices by employers such as retention of their passports.
Third, these employees are denied social security benefits such as medical insurance, even when they are deployed in hazardous employment. Women and children become particularly vulnerable in such a scenario, as they become soft targets for notorious human trafficking gangs.
The Emigration Act of 1983 established Emigration authorities under the Ministry of External Affairs tasked with the setting up of check posts at India’s permeable international borders to monitor the flow of illegal emigrants, inspect conveyances, and enquire about their residency in foreign countries.
The act also mandated registration and certification of recruiting agents to avoid deception and directed employers to recruit only through registered recruiters.
Additionally, it also placed ceiling limits on service fee that can be charged by recruiters to the migrant workers and called for review of documents before travel is authorized.
The 1983 act has been criticized by policy analysts as falling short in addressing large-scale emigration and its wide geo-economic, geo-political and geo-strategic impact in the current times. Thus in June 2021, the Ministry of External Affairs invited public comments on the Draft Emigration Bill of 2021, which is expected to reform the recruitment process for Indians seeking employment abroad as it seeks to address the loopholes in the existing act.
It will institute a Central Emigration Management Authority under the aegis of the Ministry of External Affairs as well as a Bureau of Emigration Policy and Planning and a Bureau of Emigration Administration to handle day-to-day administrative operations and oversee welfare of Indian citizens living and working abroad. These authorities will have powers of a civil court.
Moreover, the Bill seeks to digitize records of Indian migrants and conduct pre-departure orientation to make the workers aware of their rights under the law. It also offers insurance covers, skill upgradation and training for those aspiring for overseas employment opportunities.
Likewise, it also proposes stronger mechanisms to regulate recruiters and human resource agencies by maintaining and updating lists of blacklisted and fraudulent agencies, providing accreditation, and giving ratings to employers to make the process more transparent and safe.
Finally, the new bill also envisions penalties for agencies, individual recruiters as well as migrant workers who lack valid permits to travel to work and settle abroad. In this regard, competent authorities shall be empowered to suspend or cancel passports of violators and impose fines upto Rs. 50,000.
The draft bill has been criticized for falling short on addressing human rights violations in such job contracts. Furthermore, it criminalizes individual workers who may be in a desperate situation or under influence of their employers/recruiters. Thus, analysts believe such provisions will end up disincentivising migrants from seeking redressal of their grievances and push them further into the clutches of exploitative employers.
Moreover, the bill is considered out of sync with international standards that place the responsibility of paying immigration fees and recruitment charges on the employers, rather than the employees.
Finally, it has also drawn flak for its scant regard to the gendered nature of such illegal migrations. Women have limited agency in recruitment compared to their counterparts and are more likely to be employed in marginalised and informal sectors and/or isolated occupations in which labour, physical, psychological, and sexual abuse are common, which the bill fails to take into account.
Thus, in placing excessive onus on the individual migrant employee, experts fear that the bill will fall short of any guarantees of rooting out corruption in the recruitment process.
Instead, they point out that the government should frame migrant-centric policies, strategies, and institutional mechanisms in order to ensure inclusive growth and development and reduce distressed migration.
(With inputs from AP, MEA)