The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is investigating the torture and death of an Indonesian migrant worker in Kuwait. According to an official report by an Indonesian forensic team, domestic worker Sariah, 37, from Indramayu, West Java, died from abuse and not of natural causes, as claimed by Kuwaiti doctors. The team from Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital [...]
The Malaysian government will consider the possibility of employing illegal immigrants as foreign workers to meet the high demand from employers, according to the Malaysian Newspaper The Staronline on 16 July, 2010. Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr. S. Subramaniam said these were among 51 suggestions discussed by a special laboratory set up by the ministry [...]
A group of migrant workers in Hong Kong, including Filipinos, lambasted the Legislative Council’s (LegCo) final vote against the inclusion of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in the statutory minimum wage. “Slavery, marginalization and discrimination have now been put into law in HK. There is neither justice nor democracy in the Legislative Council’s (LegCo) vote against [...]
A pickup loaded with Burmese migrants crashed on the highway near Cha-am in Phetchaburi Province in western Thailand, killing nine and injuring seven, according to Thai Channel Seven news on Sunday. The death toll rose to 13 on Sunday evening, after four of the injured died in Cha-am hospital. The Isuzu pickup was carrying 16 [...]
Amnesty International is calling on Indonesia ’s House of People’s Representatives to provide legal protection to women and girl domestic workers in accordance with international human rights law and standards. An estimated 2.6 million women and girl domestic workers are currently not protected by legislation safeguarding workers’ rights, in particular the 2003 Manpower Act. The Manpower [...]
The reforms undertaken by Middle Eastern and Asian governments fall far short of the minimum protections needed to tackle abuses against migrant domestic workers, Human Rights Watch said today in a report released in advance of May 1, International Labor Day. Despite recent improvements, millions of Asian and African women workers remain at high risk [...]
Against the odds, Indonesian domestic workers have achieved real change in Hong Kong. When Wayne Palmer spoke to the head of the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers about her experiences working and organising in Hong Kong, this is what she had to say. What made you consider working in Hong Kong? It was 1999 [...]
Thailand’s labour ministry is on the hunt for half a million migrant workers from neighbouring Burma who have gone underground rather than join a new foreign workers’ programme, one that some critics have described as a “confusing” initiative. Labour ministry officials are now toying with extending the deadline, which ran out on Mar. 2, to [...]
Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers (TFAMW) has launched the book on the Civil Society proposal: ASEAN Framework Instrument on the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers. The 130-page document was submitted to the ASEAN Committee on Migrant Workers for consideration in the drafting of the ASEAN Framework Instrument. The details of [...]
Press release by the Global Allience Against Traffice in Women (GAATW) on 23rd February 2010 The Royal Thai government is in danger of increasing the risk of trafficking for over 2 million migrants from Burma, Cambodia and Laos by threatening mass deportation for migrant workers who do not register with the Thai government’s Nationality Verification [...]
