'466 from state among rights victims in UAE'

As many as 466 migrant workers from Tamil Nadu faced rights violations in the United Arab Emirates in the last three years, according to a study done by the National Domestic Workers Movement and Migrant Forum in Asia.

Going by the current trend, a huge number of violations are now happening in Kuwait, said Valarmathi of the National Domestic Workers Movement, Migrant Forum India and a member of the Migrant Forum in Asia. The violations during the last three to four months in Kuwait have not been taken into account.

The data is obtained from the cases documented in the Migrant Forum in Asia’s Migrants Rights Violation Reporting System (MRVRS), which facilitates the documentation of migrants’ rights violations. The study states that the maximum rights violations of migrant workers from TN happened in the UAE and that the Middle-east nations would top the chart if the rights violation of migrant Tamil Nadu workers are taken into account.

Rights of 251 workers were violated in Qatar, 70 in Saudi Arabia, 64 in Oman, 71 in Kuwait, 51 in Jordan, 47 in Iran and 28 in Iraq. Interestingly, Malaysia is ranked top when it comes to rights violation in East Asia. As per the study, the rights of 90 migrant workers were violated in the East Asian country.

All the cases involved violations against low and semi-skilled TN migrant workers such as dometic workers, construction workers, factory workers and manual labourers, said Valarmathi.