“December 18 is International Migrants Day. This day was selected to mark the anniversary of the 1990 adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
“This day is seen as an opportunity to recognise the contributions made by all migrants for the monetary gain of a country and the country must have respect for their basic human rights.
“Migrant workers make up a significant part of the workforce in construction, security sector, shop assistants, seafarers and not forgetting the live-in nannies/care-givers and they are vulnerable to exploitation because they often have very little access to economic and labour rights. Most of them are without power to fight their mistreatment and to demand fair value for their work and their fundamental human rights. The unskilled migrant workers are also vulnerable during any pandemic because their poor living and working conditions provide an environment for any disease to spread rapidly.
“Human trafficking is growing fast like an epidemic in Seychelles and Arid (Association for Rights Information & Democracy) is still receiving complaints from the migrant workers and the public by the way they are being abused, exploited; they go for months without being paid, and now, during this festive season, many migrant workers are not able to send anything to their loved ones and kids back home just because some greedy, selfish employers think only of themselves.
“To conclude, Arid is asking on the people with love for humanity to join it to campaign for the protection of migrant workers, especially the vulnerable ones, in national responses and social protection measures.
“Arid is calling on all entities mandated by law to protect the rights of migrant workers, to adhere to the international protocols and the domestic regulations relating to the protection of migrant workers, especially the vulnerable ones.
“Let us make it our duty to know that migrant workers’ rights are human rights.”
Source: Seychelles Nation
