Migrant workers - Bringing an end to the exploitation

A report by the Immigrant Council of Ireland consisting of interviews with migrant women from 21 countries makes alarming reading.

Many are professionally trained to work in positions such as nursing, architecture, engineering, and information technology.

Maria was recruited as a nanny in Manila for an Irish family, but she found herself not only looking after children but also doing domestic work like cooking and laundry. She told of spending hours preparing a meal on Christmas Day for the Irish couple and their four children and was then told to “disappear” and leave the family home and wander the streets while the family gorged themselves.

She thought the family did not want her around because she would be some kind of embarrassment.

“It made me feel bad about myself,” she explained.

Shani, a woman from South Africa, was lured to work here and paid €130 a week for meatpacking. She and many of her colleagues were working from 6am to 8pm. He wages were later lowered, and when she complained she was fired.

There have always been people here and elsewhere who are ready to exploit the less fortunate.

Such exploitation may be very difficult to stamp out, but it should never be facilitated.

The report draws a number of conclusions about the need to tighten legislation in relation to immigrants. Proper information should be furnished to migrant workers coming here, and they should be provided with access to certain services to ensure their protection.

People coming to work in this country should be treated with the same human dignity that we expect for our own emigrants. Human rights should be guaranteed upon arrival — not just after two years in residence.

The Immigrants Council of Ireland is asking for legislation to protect migrant workers.

Employers apply for a work permit on behalf of employees from outside the EU, so those workers are therefore tied to the employer. This allows unscrupulous employers to exploit workers.

Many of those workers feel compelled to submit to this exploitation because they are afraid of being deported. The Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland called yesterday for a ‘Bridging Visa’ to allow workers a period of grace to seek other employment, if they become undocumented.

Assistance should certainly be provided to workers to resist exploitation. It is an outrage that our system is protecting and actually facilitating unscrupulous people to exploit the vulnerable.

No other EU country has such a bridging process but our legislators should not allow themselves to be unduly influenced by this, in view of our history over the past couple of centuries. Millions of our people have scattered to all parts of the globe in search of a living.

Ignoring this problem at home, while calling for proper treatment for the 25,000 undocumented Irish in the United States, is sheer hypocrisy. We owe it to them, to our history, and to ourselves to ensure that the exploitation of immigrants in this country is neither facilitated nor tolerated.