Labour / Labour Conditions

Des travailleurs migrants ayant participé à la construction des sites et des infrastructures pour les Jeux olympiques d’hiver à Sotchi, en Russie, ont été victimes d’escroquerie et d’exploitation, a indiqué Human Rights Watch dans un rapport publié aujourd’hui.

Migrant workers in Malaysia’s electronics industry are heavily indebted by the time they start working because of extortionate fees of recruitment agencies. Migrant workers are paid less, sometimes even only half, of what they were promised by the agencies that recruited them, and deductions are made from wages without proper explanation. Workers will undergo HIV testing as part of medical screening and women workers have to have mandatory pregnancy tests and are sent back home if they get pregnant.

There are strict rules covering the conditions for chickens and eggs marketed in the happy hen category by high street names – a Freedom Food chicken must be grabbed by both legs rather than just one when being caught, for example. But the conditions of the humans sent to catch them has had less attention.

This new report examines a recruitment and employment system that effectively traps many migrant workers in their jobs. The problems they face include exorbitant recruitment fees, which can take years to pay off, employers’ routine confiscation of worker passports, and Qatar’s restrictive sponsorship system that gives employers inordinate control over their employees.