The South Asian Migrant Crisis

Context

COVID-19 outbreak and the precarious conditions of the migrant workers.

Background

Companies have been shutting down amidst the COVID-19 epidemic and frequent lockdowns in the Gulf countries. This has further aggravated the situation by bringing migrant workers living in Gulf countries into severe poverty.

As a result, there is a large-scale reverse migration of workers to their homeland nations. The increasing demand for social security for these workers and for their families brought the case to the Kerala High Court. The High Court issued a notice to the Center and the state to take necessary measures for the migrant workers who have returned home.

Changed Conditions

The South Asia-Gulf migration corridor is one of the largest in the world. Migrants from the South Asian countries account for nearly 15 million in the Gulf. World Bank report estimates that in 2019, total remittances to South Asia was about $140 billion, of which India received $83.1 billion, Pakistan received $22.5 billion, Bangladesh received $18.3 billion and Nepal $8.1 billion. Simultaneously, economy of Gulf Nations is largely dependent on migrant workers.

Changed environment in COVID-19 pandemic, the exploitative nature of the Kafala system and the Expat bill have all aggravated the miseries of South Asian migrant workers. They have no safety net, social security protection, welfare mechanisms, or labour rights.

Changed environment in COVID-19 pandemic, the exploitative nature of the Kafala system and the recently proposed Expat bill have all aggravated the miseries of South Asian migrant workers. Migrant workers have no safety net, social security protection, welfare mechanisms, or labour rights.

The economic crisis, in turn, exacerbates the health crisis for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the economic slowdown reduces the resources needed to combat the health crisis. Furthermore, the needs of both the health recovery and the economic recovery are competing for the same resources.

Since medicines are expensive in the Gulf nations, migrants often procure them from India and stock up for a few months. However, the suspension of flights caused an acute shortage of medicines, and exposed the frail medical insurance system in the Gulf for these workers. Now, thousands have returned home empty-handed.

Implications on India

Millions of migrant workers toiling in the Gulf countries are facing a crisis, due to Covid-19 and the fall in oil prices. The crisis will manifest in home countries like India foremost by the workers' reduced ability to keep earning and remitting money. That means a lot of migrant workers are now either unemployed or waiting for something good to happen. An expecting data shows decline of 23% in remittances to the South Asia region, and in particular, to India.

It’s not just remittances, foreign direct investment is expected to fall by 37% as a whole. Stock and bond markets are likely to fall more. In that context, balance of payment difficulties could come up in India hence needs to manage its balance of payment situation in careful way.

Solutions

When the migrant workers come back home, we shouldn’t forget firstly, that most of them are young people. We should also remember that these are people who have acquired skills. They can also be provided with seed money to start businesses. A number of things can be done to welcome them back and give them help so that they can help themselves. They are not coming back to stay idle. And they’ll be the first to go back once the economy reopens. The Union and state governments and municipalities must provide help to them.

An immediate policy recommendation is that India takes care of its stranded migrants. They are not about a hundred or thousand, but are of millions of people. These are Indians who are relatively poorer. A better solution would be to keep people safe in their destination country. Second, the governments of India and the Gulf countries need to help with cash aids, so that they can buy essentials and give them access to housing and health. Third, money service business should be recognized as an essential service and people have to be helped to use online channels.

With the current fear of contagion, societies are not very welcoming of strangers and foreigners. Those moving from one city to another are held in fear, that they might be carrying the virus. Under these circumstances, the likelihood that discrimination against migrants would increase is very high. Governments have to make sure that discrimination does not increase and lead to social tension, whether in Gulf countries or other parts of the world.

Way Forward

Indian origin migrant workers needs immediate relief, the government should take their re-habilitating, re-integrating, and re-settling at on priority. To facilitate this, the government should effectively manage and give impetus to its schemes, such as SWADES for skill mapping of citizens returning from abroad. Following Kerala's scheme ‘Dream Kerala’ for migrant workers, other states should also launch such schemes to provide them relief in this distressing situation.

Connecting the Dots

Question for Prelims

Moving from north to south, what is the correct order of the following countries?

1. Qatar
2. Bahrain
3. Kuwait

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1-2-3
(b) 2-1-3
(c) 3-2-1
(d) 3-1-2

Question for Mains

Covid-19 has negatively affected the migrant economy in both domestic and international scale. Discuss