The impact of the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has left migrant workers around the world more vulnerable to human trafficking, organized crime and usury, a non-governmental organization (NGO) has warned.
The International Alliance of Migrants (IMA) will hold, from Wednesday and for four days, the first general assembly since the start of the pandemic, bringing together in the capital of Thailand, Bangkok, some 150 representatives from more than 30 countries, including Jenny Uchuari, representatives of Ecuadorian immigrants in Brazil.
“A lot has happened during the pandemic,” the IMA president told Lusa.
Eni Lestari Andayani Adi gave the example of the United States, which, according to the organization International Rescue, expelled more than 2.5 million migrants under a health measure, imposed in March 2020, to control the flow at the land border by the spread of COVID-19.
“Many of us have been infected or are at risk of being infected every day, not only because of our work, but also because of our living conditions”, stressed Eni Lestari.
In countries like Singapore and Malaysia, many outbreaks have emerged in dormitories where migrant workers live “overcrowded, in unhygienic and inhumane conditions,” lamented the activist.
“If we get infected, we can lose our job at any time, receive no compensation and be discriminated against to the point of not being able to find another job,” said Eni Lestari.
Even migrants who fled the novel coronavirus have been affected by the economic crisis, Indonesia added.
“Especially those who work in factories and on ships, they cannot receive the salary they were promised”, which leads them to “go hungry”, lamented Eni Lestari, who lives in Hong Kong.
In the neighboring Chinese region of Macao, during a period of partial lockdown, imposed in July by the worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic, the authorities indicated that employers did not have to pay workers, forced to stay at home.
At the time, the associations told Lusa that there were immigrant workers with severe shortages of basic necessities and surviving only on food donations.
Since Macau closed its borders to foreigners without resident status in March 2020, the territory has lost nearly 19% of its non-resident workforce, with nearly 35,500 people out of work, legally forcing them to leave the city. .
But many stayed, “some more than a year,” the president of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union in Macau, Yosa Wari Yanti, told Lusa.
This despite the fact that, with the pandemic, “it is no longer so easy to find another job,” stressed Eni Lestari. “There are more requirements to meet, vaccines, tests and now it takes more time,” she added.
“People who have recently arrived in Hong Kong have paid between HK$15,000 and HK$17,000. [1.800 a 2.100 euros] just for the process. The employment agency and the employer do not want to pay the quarantine expenses, which are deducted from the salary,” said the activist.
Desperation opens the door to an increase in human trafficking, “by increasingly organized groups,” added Eni Lestari.
Like Timorese deceived with promises of jobs and abandoned in Lisbon and Serpa, many Indonesians “were taken to Turkey, with promises of jobs in Poland, and cannot return home,” says the IMA leader.
Some migrants end up in prostitution, Eni Lestari said, while Yosa Wari Yanti says others turn to selling drugs or get caught up in moneylender networks.
“There was the case of an Indonesian woman who had cancer and our association tried to help her, but we couldn’t do anything because they took her passport when she applied for a loan. She ended up getting beaten up for not paying back the money,” Yosa said.
Source: TSF
