Migrant Workers Case Study

Throughout the era, there are so many people have been leaving their homelands in search of work, in order to survive and to provide a better lifestyle for their family members. People that come into our country to work are called migrant workers. Migrant workers in Malaysia are protected under the Human Rights for Migrant Workers. All workers, in fact, all people, regardless of their nationality, race, religion, legal or political status, are entitled to fundamental human rights and basic labor protections.

For the international standard, there are few provisions to guarantee the human rights of migrant workers. The United Nation had adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of …show more content…
Hence, it causes many issues among the migrant workers. One of the issues faced by the migrant workers in Malaysia is that the rule of equal treatment for migrant workers is provided but not enforced. In fact, the specific guidelines for treatment of migrant workers are stated in the Policy on Recruitment of Foreign Workers which is adopted in 1991. In this policy, it is stated that the terms and conditions of employment, wages, and benefits provided to the migrant workers will similar to those provided to local workers, provided that under relevant and legal national labour legislation. Besides that, it is also stated that all migrant workers must have a written contract and the employers must provide clean and hygienic housing and food to the migrant workers. The costs related to the work as such the recruitment fee and the repatriation of worker are to be paid by the …show more content…
Employers do not follow exact the standards for migrant workers’ accommodation. The place provided to the migrant workers is small, insecure, unsafe, dirty and in a bad and poor condition. The fourth issue faced by migrant workers is the abuse and exploitation of migrant workers. Many migrant workers are toiled in conditions that amount to exploitation of labour. As such, they do not get their salary for months, work for long hours and even work every day of the week. Besides that, verbal and physical abuse to migrant workers is common issue occurred among migrant workers. To make it worse, sexual harassment and assault often happened to women workers. In fact, many migrant workers may be confined to their workplace and threatened with violence. Many migrant workers work in a dangerous workplace as such their jobs are to operate hazardous equipment or to handle dangerous chemicals. To make it worse, protective gear or guidance on how to protect themselves are not provided to them. Furthermore, many migrant workers have actually put on debts back in their homeland, in order to apply for the permit to work in Malaysia but later found out that they are recruited on the basis of deception on the condition of their jobs which turned out in the situation of debt