A four-day consultation on “Ecumenical Advocacy for the Protection of the Human Rights of Migrant Workers in the Arabian Gulf Region” concluded on May 2 in Alwaye, India. The event was organized by the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) along with the Christian Conference of Asia, according to a WCC news story.
According to a communiqué issued from the event, “Migrant workers in the Arabian Gulf countries often face gross violations of their rights, exploitation and at times violence leading even to death. The most vulnerable are the female domestic workers and unskilled and irregular laborers, being subjected to long working hours without rest, deplorable and inhuman working and living conditions, irregular pay, confiscation of travel documents and victimization by unscrupulous agents and employers.”
Metropolitan Joseph Mar Thoma inaugurated the gathering. Describing the experience of migrant workers and the diaspora in the Arabian Gulf countries during the past four decades, Mar Thoma stated that “our theological and biblical imperatives call us to be engaged in a mission and prophetic witness to protect the rights and dignity of the stranger, the alien and the suffering who are in our midst.”
In an speech, Dr. Mathews George Chunakara, director of the CCIA, said “human rights and labor rights were recognized by the International Labor Organization since 1919 and by the United Nations (UN) since its inception, particularly since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families in 1990. Yet the lack of adequate protection mechanisms at the national levels in migrant workers’ sending and receiving countries make the Convention less effective. This warrants urgency regarding the need for more effective advocacy at national and global levels.”
Fr. Tesfa Endale from the Dubai Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, reflected on the situation of Ethiopian migrant workers in the Gulf, saying “the most vulnerable among the Ethiopian migrant workers are the domestic workers. They work in prison-like conditions and face persecution, ill-treatment and physical abuse by their employers.”
“The Kafaala sponsorship system, which ties workers’ visas to individual employers who serve as immigration sponsors in lieu of state authorities, violates the rights and dignity of migrant workers,” said Fr. John Van Deerlin, an episcopal delegate for migrant affairs from the Roman Catholic Church.
Reports on the situations facing migrant workers living in labor camps in Arab countries were given by Dr. Audeh Quawas of the CCIA and Rev. Catherine Graham, coordinator of the Anglican Refugee and Migrant Network.
A report from the consultation will be presented at the next meeting of the CCIA in Nanjing, China in June 2012.
