{"id":121580,"date":"2021-07-27T20:29:50","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T14:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=121580"},"modified":"2021-07-27T20:35:38","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T15:05:38","slug":"an-emigration-bill-that-does-not-go-far-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/an-emigration-bill-that-does-not-go-far-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"An emigration Bill that does not go far enough"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <strong>Source<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=G9M8QD996.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: The emigration\u00a0bill and other reforms are essential to protect Indian workers abroad.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Synopsis<\/strong>:<\/h5>\n<p>The new emigration bill is better than the Emigration Act 1983, but more reforms are needed to protect Indian workers.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Introduction:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>In early June 2021, the Ministry of External Affairs invited public inputs to the Emigration Bill 2021. The Bill could be introduced in Parliament soon and presents a long-overdue opportunity to<strong> reform the recruitment process for nationals seeking employment abroad<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>How Emigration is governed at present?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Labour migration is governed by the <strong>Emigration Act, 1983<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Act <strong>sets up a mechanism for hiring<\/strong> through government-certified recruiting agents &#8211; individuals or public or private agencies.<\/li>\n<li>The Act outlines <strong>obligations for agents to conduct due diligence of prospective employers.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It also sets up a <strong>cap on service fees<\/strong> and <strong>establishes<\/strong> a government review of worker travel and employment documents (known as <strong>emigration clearances<\/strong>) to 18 countries. These include mainly in West Asian states and South-East Asian countries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Why does India need the Emigration bill?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Serious exploitative practices:<\/strong> For years, independent investigations into migrant worker conditions have underlined serious exploitative practices. Such as large recruitment charges, contract substitution, retention of passports, non-payment or underpayment of wages, poor living conditions and ill-treatment, etc.<\/li>\n<li>In recent months, <strong>media reports have highlighted<\/strong> how the majority of migrant worker <strong>deaths in the Arab Gulf States\/West Asia<\/strong> are <strong>attributed to heart attacks and respiratory failures<\/strong>, whose causes are unexplained and poorly understood.<\/li>\n<li>The Emigration Bill 2021 is an <strong>improvement over the 1983 Act<\/strong>. This is due to the following reasons.\n<ul>\n<li>The bill launches a <strong>new emigration policy division<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It also establishes <strong>help desks and welfare committees<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The bill requires <strong>manpower agencies to conduct pre-departure briefings for migrants<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It also <strong>increases the accountability of brokers and other intermediaries<\/strong> who are also involved in labour hiring.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>What are the challenges with the emigration bill?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>The bill <strong>lacks a human rights framework <\/strong>aimed at securing the <strong>rights of migrants and their families<\/strong>. Progressive labour regimes do so. For example, the <strong>Philippines explicitly recognises<\/strong> \u201cthe dignity and fundamental human rights and freedoms of the Filipino citizens\u201d.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Against ILO Convention<\/strong>: International Labour Organization&#8217;s (ILO) Private Employment Agencies Convention No. 181 <strong>mentions that the employers<\/strong>, not workers, <strong>should bear recruitment payments.<\/strong> This includes the costs of their visas, air travel, medical exams, and service charges to recruiters. The bill, on the other hand, <strong>permits manpower agencies to charge workers\u2019 service fees<\/strong>, and even <strong>allows agents to set their own limits<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Large-scale surveys by the ILO and the World Bank show that Indian workers pay exorbitant charges for their jobs. For instance, Indians in Saudi Arabia paid on average $1,507 in recruitment charges.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Bill permits <strong>government authorities to punish workers by canceling or suspending their passports<\/strong> and imposing fines up to \u20b950,000 for violating any of Bill\u2019s provisions.\n<ul>\n<li>This can be used as a tool to crack down on workers who migrate through unregistered brokers or via irregular arrangements, such as on tourist visas.<\/li>\n<li>But it runs contradictory to the purpose of protecting migrants and their families and <strong>violates international human rights standards<\/strong>. As <strong>migrant workers<\/strong>, in general, are <strong>unaware of the law<\/strong> and <strong>recruiters influence them<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Recruiters and public officials<\/strong> could <strong>misuse the law to instil fear among workers and report or threaten to report them<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>This Bill <strong>does not also adequately reflect the gender dimensions of labour migration. <\/strong>Women having limited agency in recruitment but are more likely to be <strong>employed in marginalised and informal sectors<\/strong> and\/or isolated occupations in which <strong>labour, physical, psychological, and sexual abuse<\/strong> are common.<\/li>\n<li>The Bill also provides <strong>limited space for worker representation or civil society engagement<\/strong> <strong>in<\/strong> the <strong>policy and welfare bodies<\/strong> that it sets up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Suggestions:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The Ministry of External Affairs must start at the top, and draft a clearer purpose which explicitly recognizes<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The contributions of Indian workers<\/li>\n<li>The unique challenges they face<\/li>\n<li>Uphold the dignity and human rights of migrants and their families.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: The Hindu Relevance: The emigration\u00a0bill and other reforms are essential to protect Indian workers abroad. Synopsis: The new emigration bill is better than the Emigration Act 1983, but more reforms are needed to protect Indian workers. Introduction: In early June 2021, the Ministry of External Affairs invited public inputs to the Emigration Bill 2021.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/an-emigration-bill-that-does-not-go-far-enough\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">An emigration Bill that does not go far enough<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[8609,212,5922,239],"class_list":["post-121580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-emigration-bill","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-diaspora","tag-international-relations","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":2,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1701335634},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}