[LEBANON] Aljazeera: Lebanon's migrant workers move to form labour union

26 January 2015

Subjected to beatings and rapes, Beirut's domestic workers push to set up Arab world's first labour union.

Migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are pushing to form the first labour union in the Arab world after being subjected to beatings and rape. 

More than 200 women from Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh attended a founding conference in Beirut on Sunday. 

"We want to be treated like human beings, like real workers," said Leticia, a Filipina who was assaulted and raped by her employer several years ago and only gave her first name. "With this union, I will no longer feel alone in the face of abuse," she said.

The union has the support of the National Federation of Workers' Unions in Lebanon (FENASOL), which says the country has a quarter of a million migrant domestic workers but has yet to win recognition from the government. 

Lebanon's Labour Minister Sejaane Azzi stated that the law does not allow foreigners to set up a union, but that "new laws are needed to improve the situation for housemaids".

Read more

[ISRAEL] Human Rights Watch: Serious Abuse of Thai Migrant Workers

JANUARY 21, 2015

(Jerusalem) – Thai agricultural workers in Israel face serious labor rights abuses because Israeli authorities are failing to enforce their own laws, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Israeli authorities should take immediate steps to improve its enforcement mechanisms and investigate whether unsatisfactory living and working conditions have contributed to a troubling pattern of deaths among migrant workers from Thailand.

The 48-page report ,“A Raw Deal: Abuses of Thai Workers in Israel’s Agricultural Sector,” documents low pay, excessive working hours, hazardous working conditions, and poor housing for some of Israel’s Thai agricultural workers – and employer retribution if they try to protest by going on strike. The problems persist despite improvements in 2011 to the recruitment process for Thai workers and Israeli laws that set a minimum wage, limit working hours, allow lawful strikes and unionization, and outline standards for workers’ accommodation.

“The success of Israel’s agricultural industry depends to a large extent on the labor of Thai migrant workers, but Israel is doing far too little to uphold their rights and protect them from exploitation,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “Israeli authorities need to be much more active in enforcing the law on working hours and conditions, and in clamping down on employers who abuse workers’ rights.”

Read more

[FRANCE] Le Monde: En France, des immigrés de plus en plus diplômés

le 1er décembre 2014

« Mobiliser les compétences des migrants au service de la réussite économique » : le titre de la conférence de l’organisation de coopération et de développement économique (OCDE), qui se tient à Paris, lundi 1er et mardi 2 décembre, sonne comme une réponse au 15e congrès du FN. Alors que Jean-Marie Le Pen, président d’honneur du parti, a, ce week-end à Lyon, une nouvelle fois assimilé l’immigration à la cause « la plus importante et la plus essentielle (…) du déclin français », les chercheurs de l’organisation offrent une autre approche et proposent des clés pour que la migration de travail stimule mieux la croissance.

Le portrait-type de l’immigré a changé. Celui qui ne savait pas toujours lire dans sa langue d’origine laisse de plus en plus souvent place à un migrant diplômé de l’université. « Dans les pays de l’OCDE, le nombre de personnes nées à l’étranger ayant un niveau d’éducation élevé a augmenté de 70 % au cours de la dernière décennie, excédant les 31 millions dans la zone », rappelle le rapport Perspective des migrations internationales 2014, publié lundi par l’organisation. Ces 31 millions sont à rapprocher des 115 millions de personnes vivant dans un pays de l’OCDE sans y être nées. En 2013, ce sont 4 millions d’immigrés permanents (avec visas longs séjours) qui se sont installés dans un de ces pays, soit 1,1 % de plus que l’année précédente.

La France, qui se situe désormais, selon la même source, au quatrième rang des pays d’accueil, s’est enrichie de 258 000 nouveaux venus en 2012 (les chiffres 2013 n’ont pas été donnés à l’OCDE). 38 % d’entre eux sont arrivés par regroupement familial, 37 % au bénéfice de la libre circulation européenne, 4,6 % pour raison humanitaire. Si seulement 12,1 % sont entrés avec comme motivation première affichée le travail, ils sont bien plus nombreux à exercer effectivement une activité.

Lire la suite

[ISRAEL] Haaretz: Israel aims to drive Africans out by squeezing their employers

27 November 2014

Strategy is to deter hiring of asylum-seekers with

prohibitive fees on businesses.

Employers of African asylum-seekers will soon be required to pay exorbitant fees under a new government plan aimed at drying up these jobs and thus inducing the Eritrean and Sudanese “infiltrators,” as the government calls them, to leave the country. The plan was initiated by the Prime Minister’s Office as well as the ministries of Interior, Justice and Finance.

Last week the Interior Ministry published a memorandum labeled a “proposal to prevent infiltration and encourage asylum seekers and foreign workers to leave Israel”. The memorandum includes an amendment to the law dealing with foreign workers, designating a new fund to be established for their benefit. The money deposited there will only become available to them on departure.

The memorandum stipulates that employers deposit 20% of employee salaries into this fund. In addition employers will have to deposit an additional 20% out of their own pockets, which is twice as high as the amounts deposited by employers of other workers in this country. For most employees, these funds go towards pensions and severance payments. Thus, 40% of asylum seekers’ salaries will be deposited monthly in this fund. They will receive the cash only when they leave Israel. “This amendment is designed to improve the social benefits of foreign workers, including ones who came here illegally. It is meant to encourage foreign workers to leave at the end of their term of employment and to coax illegal workers to leave”, states the memorandum.

Reas more

[CAMPS] Nouvelobs: Actualité > Bibliobs > Essais > Réfugiés, déplacés, migrants: la planète des camps Réfugiés, déplacés, migrants: la planète des camps

9 novembre 2014

«Il faut rendre les camps célèbres...», proclame en préambule l'anthropologue Michel Agier. Après un instant de surprise, le mot d'ordre s'impose. S'il y a un point commun qui relie les différents types de camps contemporains - du camp de réfugiés aux centres de rétention administrative -, c'est le manque de visibilité. Le camp est à l'écart, loin des centres-villes et des voies de communication, on ignore qui y réside, on en parle peu.

Qui songerait à s'y rendre en visite ? En fait, tout est fait pour que ces lieux aient le moins d'existence possible. Tel ce camp de Dadaab ouvert en 1992 dans l'est du Kenya, qui accueille 450.000 réfugiés somaliens, soit quasiment la population de Lyon, et qui n'apparaît nulle part sur les cartes officielles.

C'est cette réalité aussi massive que masquée que vient dévoiler «Un monde de camps», ouvrage collectif dirigé par Michel Agier. «Les camps sont une réalité d'après guerre froide», souligne ce dernier. Certes, le camp, défini comme le fait d'enfermer et de priver de droits des personnes n'ayant commis aucun délit, ne date pas d'hier. L'expression «camp de concentration» voit le jour à la toute fin du XIXe siècle lorsque les Anglais confinent dans des villages de tentes un quart des Boers (principalement les vieillards, les femmes et les enfants).

Dans les années 1930, les régimes totalitaires ont transformé le camp d'enfermement en camp de la mort. Plus tard, les guerres postcoloniales ont jeté sur la route des millions de civils que la communauté internationale a regroupés dans des camps de réfugiés.

Aujourd'hui, la cartographie des camps reflète la géopolitique mondiale: au sud, des camps de réfugiés et de déplacés ; au nord, des centres de détention où l'on enferme les sans-papiers ; dans l'entre-deux, des campements à demi sauvages pour ceux qui tentent le grand passage. Quant aux pays émergents, ils ouvrent des camps de travailleurs qui apportent leurs bras aux immenses chantiers.

Lire la suite

[Jordan] the Jordan Times - Egyptian guest worker wins lawsuit against public institutions for ‘arbitrary detention’

2 November 2014

AMMAN — For the first time in Jordan, a guest worker has won a case against several state institutions for allegedly taking “arbitrary” measures against him, according to a local advocacy group.

In a judicial precedent, Amman Magistrates Court Judge Haifa Kayyali recently ruled in favour of Egyptian Hamadeen Najdi, who filed a lawsuit against the interior minister, the Public Security Department director, the director of Jweideh Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre and the Amman governor for putting him in administrative detention for 70 days, then detaining him for 13 months until deportation procedures were over.

Najdi was arrested by Labour Ministry inspectors for not renewing his work permit, which the employer — who is responsible for permit renewal — terminated after disputes with him, according to Tamkeen for Legal Aid and Support, which handled the labourer’s case.

The worker was then detained at the south Amman police station, although the Criminal Court Law does not allow detaining any suspect for more than 24 hours before referring him/her to court.

Moreover, the Amman governor issued a decision to deport the Egyptian and keep him in detention until deportation measures were completed, resulting in detaining him for 13 months, according to Tamkeen.

The labourer was only released after going on a hunger strike.

In her ruling, Kayyali said the measures taken against Najdi had “arbitrarily” deprived him of his freedom and caused him psychological and financial losses, particularly as he came to work in a new country accompanied by his wife and young daughter.

Read more 

[FRANCE] L'Humanité: Ouvrir les frontières : les six preuves qu’on a tous à y gagner

11 novembre 2014

La France a fermé ses frontières au lendemain de la crise de 1973, au prétexte de protéger l’emploi. Les véritables raisons étaient surtout électoralistes. Car, en dépit des fantasmes, les immigrés ne menacent ni nos emplois, ni nos « identités », ni nos systèmes sociaux. Et tous, loin de là, ne rêvent pas de s’installer dans les pays riches. À moins qu’on continue de les y obliger en renforçant nos politiques prédatrices et sécuritaires. 

1 La circulation libre, un levier contre les égoïsmes nationaux   Ouvrir les frontières n’est pas les abolir. Depuis 1985, l’espace Schengen est un espace de libre circulation pour les habitants de l’Union européenne. Il s’agirait d’appliquer ce principe à l’échelle de la planète. Cela n’interdit pas forcément les contrôles aux points de passage en cas de nécessité. Si elle ne peut être appliquée que de manière progressive, la liberté de circulation implique celle d’installation et d’accès à l’emploi, souligne Claire Rodier, juriste au Groupe d’information et de soutien aux immigrés (GISTI). « Penser l’immigration avec cet objectif oblige à avoir une approche globale de la marche du monde. Elle devient un levier pour dépasser les égoïsmes nationaux. » L’argument n’est pas seulement idéologique. « Si elle n’est pas anticipée, cette liberté de circulation s’imposera de toute manière dans les plus mauvaises conditions », prévient le GISTI. 

Lire la suite

[Lebanon] Al Jazeera - A Lebanese court recently ruled in favour of a foreign domestic worker, but rights groups say many challenges persist.

10 October 2014

Human rights advocates hailed a recent court ruling as a milestone for migrant domestic workers' rights, after a worker successfully sued her employer for the first time in Lebanon.

This summer, a migrant domestic worker from the Philippines sued her employer in Lebanon's Summary Affairs Court to retrieve her passport, which the employer had confiscated, arguing the worker left before the end of their contract. The presiding judge, Jad Maalouf, found the employer had denied the worker's right to freedom of movement, violating Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is incorporated into the Lebanese constitution.

"To our knowledge [this ruling was] the first of its kind [in Lebanon]," said Sarah Wasan, a legal researcher at Legal Agenda, a Beirut-based NGO. In the past, migrant domestic workers have usually been defendants in Lebanese court hearings: A 2010 Human Rights Watch report found this was the case in 74 percent of 114 examined trials.

Read more

[Jordan] The Jordan Times - Labour Ministry's Eid campaign to target illegal workers

2 October 2014

AMMAN — The Ministry of Labour will carry out an intensive inspection campaign during the Eid Al Adha holiday to eliminate labour violations.

Under the campaign, legal measures will be taken against workplaces hiring illegal workers.

The campaign follows repeated and continuing violations by businesses that hire guest workers with no valid work permits and force many Jordanians to become jobless, according to the ministry.

The ministry called on the public to report violators via its hotlines 0796580666 or 0777580666, or via its toll-free landline 080022208.

The ministry campaign will start on the second day of Eid and continue through Tuesday.

Lire la suite

[Liban] L'Orient Le Jour - Cette immigration asiatique qui consomme local

4 octobre 2014

Le Liban compte un grand nombre de personnes issues de l'immigration en provenance d'Asie du Sud. En l'absence de statistiques officielles détaillées sur leurs habitudes de consommation, « L'Orient-Le Jour » est parti à la rencontre de Sri Lankais, de Bangladais et d'Indiens afin de chercher à définir leur degré de participation à l'économie locale.

L'immigration en provenance des pays d'Asie du Sud à destination du Liban (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Inde) s'est réduite comme peau de chagrin ces dernières années. Contacté par L'Orient-Le Jour, le personnel de l'ambassade du Sri Lanka confirme en effet que « les demandes de visas pour travailler sur le territoire libanais ont énormément diminué ». « Nos services ont traité 1 500 demandes environ depuis le mois de janvier, ce qui correspond à notre moyenne mensuelle il y a encore cinq ans », ajoutent-ils pour illustrer ce constat. La situation sécuritaire mais aussi la dégradation de la qualité de vie au Liban figurent parmi les explications avancées pour comprendre cette baisse. Pourtant, le pays du Cèdre compte encore de nombreux immigrés en provenance d'Asie de l'Est. Bien qu'il soit difficile d'estimer leur nombre avec précision, un rapide tour d'horizon permet néanmoins de constater que leur présence est loin d'être résiduelle et qu'ils se sont plutôt bien adaptés au tissu économique libanais. Comment se répartissent leurs dépenses ?

Lire la suite

[EU Trafficking - Migration] ENP news - EU provides new support to help migrants and victims of human trafficking

2 October 2014

EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs today announced a new project to promote and protect the rights of migrants moving between developing countries, worth over €10 million. The project focuses on two types of migrants: those who carry out domestic work in the recipient country (e.g. house-cleaning) and those who fall victim of human trafficking. The project is being implemented in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Africa, the Americas and Asia.

 

Currently, many developing countries without adequate migration or labour policy frameworks rely substantially on migrant labour force for their economic development. Migrants are vulnerable, and susceptible of being victims of forced labour, in particular in sectors such as domestic work, given the ‘invisible’ nature of their work. They also represent an easy target for human trafficking networks.

Read more

 

[Cyprus] Cyprus Mail - Domestic workers are ‘invisible’ in cases of sexual abuse

September 27, 2014 

The state turns a blind eye to the sexual abuse and violence that female domestic workers face in Cyprus, the head of a women’s rights group said yesterday, demanding that measures are taken for their protection and support.

Josie Christodoulou, policy coordinator at the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) was the keynote speaker at the conference on sexual violence against domestic workers co-hosted with the Cyprus University of Technology as part of the ‘Commun-AID’ programme that aims to empower migrant workers to respond to sexual abuse through community-based interventions.

Christodoulou said that even though domestic workers are visible in our every day lives and a large part of our economy is built around them, they are invisible when it comes to policies, legislations and their rights.

“Research studies show that worldwide domestic workers are victims of violence, physical, verbal, psychological or sexual and in Cyprus what makes them especially vulnerable to violence and exploitation is the that most of them live and work at the house of their employers,” she said.

Commissioner for Administration and Human Rights, Eliza Savvidou, said that we have failed to apply the law on fighting discrimination at the workplace for domestic workers because immigration control comes before equal treatment of workers.

Read more 

[Itlay] Washinghton Post - The experience of African migrant workers in Italy

In August of this year another wave of African immigrants washed up at the Portopalo di capo Passero in Sicily, Italy. The summer has become known as ‘boating season’ in Italy. Migrants made the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean via shoddy life rafts from Tripoli, Libya, hoping to escape the ravages of war and poverty. This year saw a disturbingly high number of migrants die at sea after their rafts capsized or were wrecked. Over the years, those migrants who survived and made it to Italy either used the country as a temporary thoroughfare while they funneled through to other countries, or stayed illegally; many found themselves in small, rural regions, such as Basilicata, Calabria and Puglia working as field workers. They migrated from east to west, north to south for several months throughout the year following the seasons and their various harvests. But what of their day-to-day existence?

According to the National Institute of Agricultural Economics (INEA) there are 102,000 people employed as workers in the agricultural sector, not including those who are illegal. 

Read more

An African migrant field worker works in Puglia, Italy during the tomato harvest.
Alessandro Penso/OnOff Picture

[Israel] Hotline for Refugees & Migrants (joint press release) - Supreme Court invalidates 4th amendments of Anti-Infiltration Law !

The response of the human rights organizations to the High Court ruling:

"It's Time for a Real Solution that Will Benefit Both Residents of South Tel Aviv and the Asylum-Seekers"

The response of the petitioners, the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, Assaf - Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, Kav LaOved, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Amnesty International-Israel:

"The Court made it clear today, once more, in a categorical and unequivocal manner, that the policy toward asylum-seekers cannot be solely based on mass detention of innocent people or complete disregard of the issue. We call on the government: This is the time to act for the mutual benefit of residents of southern Tel Aviv and asylum-seekers - by investing money in improving the infrastructure, welfare and health services in neighborhoods where many asylum-seekers reside, and by working to decrease the density of population in those areas by granting asylum-seekers work permits and encouraging Israelis to employ them.

In the ruling issued today, the High Court justices ruled seven to two that the Holot detention facility will be closed in three months, and until it is shut down, those detained within it will have to take part in two daily roll-calls instead of three. In addition. the ruling abrogated the article in the law that mandated a one-year detention in Saharonim prison for asylum-seekers who've arrived in Israel since the law came into effect in December 2013.

"The heart understands the difficulties, but the mind cannot accept the chosen solution" (Justice Fogelman, from the ruling)

For Further information,

Anat Ovadia, Hotline for Refugees and Migrants +972543177851

Hotline for Refugees & Migrants

[Italy] RoarMag - A history of hate crimes: migrants rise up in Italy

Six years after the brutal murder of six Africans, the migrants of Castel Volturno are still faced with violence and discrimination on a daily basis.

By Susi Meret and Elisabetta Della Corte

In the warm days of July, history repeated itself when African migrants were once again brutally attacked by armed and xenophobic locals in the town of Castel Volturno, situated in the Neapolitan hinterlands. Sadly, but not unsurprisingly, it was not the violence against the migrant workers that made the headlines, but rather the uprising of indignant migrants that followed.

This uprising contributed to reigniting political and media debates about the dangers of the ghettos; the problematic cohabitation between natives and foreigners; the plague of organized crime in the Italian South; and the ever-alarming increase in the numbers of migrants arriving from the North African coasts.

This combination of frames directed public opinion towards the need to support policies that curb, contain, discipline and reject migrants, in the process silencing counter-hegemonic approaches that would seriously question causes, responses to and consequences of immigration. Moreover, it was easy to observe how the reports and analyses of the events depicted the migrants as the ones responsible for their own situations and held them self-accountable to their own ‘downfall’.

Read more

[Lebanon] Now Lebanon - Migrant children expelled from Lebanon Lebanon is rejecting residency renewals of migrant workers’ children born in the country

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch reported a “recent decision by General Security, Lebanon’s security agency in charge of foreigners’ entry and residency, to deny residency permit renewals for a number of low-wage migrants who have had children in Lebanon and, for their children, disproportionately interferes with the right to family life.”

This is not the first decision in Lebanon to violate foreigners’ rights and limit their freedom. After many decisions against Syrian and Palestinianrefugees, this General Security action tears migrant workers’ families apart by rejecting the renewal of residency papers of migrant workers’ children and, in some cases, the mothers as well.

“This directive was not made public,” said Lama Fakih, Syria and Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Migrant workers were surprised to find out about this decision when they tried to renew their children’s residency papers. We don’t know when this directive was issued. Migrant workers complained about it for the first time in June 2014. We tried to contact General Security to obtain a copy of the directive, but they haven’t sent it yet.”

Read more 

[Lebanon] Human Rights Watch - Migrant Workers’ Children Expelled Directive Tearing Families Apart

Lebanon is expelling locally born children of migrant workers and in some cases their mothers, ten nongovernmental organizations working in Lebanon said today. A recent decision by General Security, Lebanon’s security agency in charge of foreigners’ entry and residency, to deny residency permit renewals for a number of low-wage migrants who have had children in Lebanon and for their children disproportionately interferes with the right to family life.

Since May 2014, nearly a dozen female migrant workers, many of them longstanding residents of Lebanon, reported to human rights groups that when they went to General Security to renew residency papers for themselves and their children, they were turned down. Some were told they were not allowed to have children in Lebanon and given a short period of time to leave the country. In some cases, they said, they were given as little as 48 hours.

Read more

[Greece]: The Guardian - Greek court acquits farmers who shot 28 Bangladeshi strawberry pickers

A Greek court's decision to acquit farmers who admitted shooting 28 Bangladeshi strawberry pickers when they asked for months of back pay has sparked outrage in the country.

Politicians, unions and anti-racist groups condemned the verdicts, describing them as a black day for justice in a case that had shone a light on the appalling conditions in which migrant workers are often kept in Greece.

"I feel shame as a Greek," said the Bangladeshis' lawyer, Moisis Karabeyidis, after the ruling in the western port city of Patras. "This decision is an outrage and a disgrace … the court showed an appalling attitude toward the victims."

Read more

[EU]: Home Affairs News - Three reports on the developments in the area of migration policy

How are the EU and its Member States addressing the challenges and opportunities of migration? What has been done so far to help manage the current migration crisis and the surge in arrivals on the European shores? What greater efforts should be made to enforce a credible and balanced EU migration policy?

In the Annual Report published today the Commission assesses the developments in the areas of immigration and asylum during 2013.

Another two reports, also published today, focus respectively on the way EU rules are applied for allowing highly skilled non-EU nationals to come and work in the EU using the EU Blue Card and on the sanctions against employers who hire irregularly staying non-EU workers.

Read the 5th Annual Report on Migration and Asylum

Read the Communication on the application of Directive 2009/52/EC of 18 June 2009 providing for minimum standards on sanctions and measures against employers of illegally staying third country nationals

Read the Report on the EU Blue Card 

[UE]: Vue d'Europe et d'ailleurs - A la recherche d’une vie meilleure : photographier les travailleurs migrants

Les travailleurs migrants de nos jours : ils découpent notre viande, ils prennent soin de nos seniors, ils récoltent nos fruits et légumes et construisent nos maisons. De la province vers les grandes villes, de Bulgarie, Pologne ou Roumanie vers l’Allemagne : ils quittent leurs pays dans l’espoir d’une vie meilleure. Une exposition au Musée du travail à Hambourg a présenté du 15 Novembre 2013 au 2 Mars 2014 le travail de neuf photographes, présentant le quotidien de ces travailleurs.

Lire ls suite