Some Thoughts about Foreign Workers

Written by Ahmed Maajid

According to estimates, the Maldives currently holds an expatriate workers’ population constituting more than 25% of the total population of the country. Recent estimates made on the basis of past statistics also show that by the year 2018, the Maldives will have a workforce of expatriates equal in size to the local population.

A few years ago, foreign workers were employed only in Malé, the Capital Island. However, it has changed today, and we now have hundreds, if not thousands, of such workers in atolls throughout the country as well.

One question that needs to be posed at this point is about how and why such a status quo is going to constitute a problem for the Maldives. The answer is not at all difficult to figure out. Here is how I would put it.

It was in 2006, and it was a Ramadan—the Muslim holy month during which Muslims are supposed to fast, and take extra pains and care to avoid things displeased by God. I was on a motorbike ride with a couple of friends along Boduthakurufaanu Magu, and I happened to set my eyes on a group of young motorists taking the opposite way on the same road. As they passed a Bangladeshi worker, trying to load some rubbish bags on to a bicycle, one of the riders approached him, and suddenly punched him with his hand. The standing man was obviously not expecting the attack and it was a shock to him. A scream escaped his mouth as he fell on the road, with his bicycle on top of him. The group of motorists passed, all of them laughing as if they had suddenly witnessed something extraordinarily funny. The man stood up, saying a lot of things in his own language, obviously unable to do anything more.

A few days ago, during this Ramadan, a friend of mine, a Sri Lankan man, was on his way to a shop, and a group of youngsters mugged him, and took away MVR500 in his shirt pocket. He told them that since it is Ramadan, they could take the money and enjoy it during the blessed month, only to see God punish them promptly for their sinful crime. Their response was, again, a hearty and loud laugh.

These are not at all isolated events in this country. They happen every day, or every other day at least. While foreign labourers usually have to cope up with such things on the road, they are not treated much better by their employers either. Barbaric, inhuman and degrading treatment characterizes the Maldivian way of dealing with expatriate workers, especially the cheap, blue-color labourers.

We always hear about labourers complaining about delayed or unpaid salaries, unduly long working hours, abusive and hurting treatment by people who deal with them as customers if they work at places such as teashops and shops, harsh treatment by employers, etc. Look at one of the many congested places given to foreign labourers as accommodation, and you will find out that those places are not nearly good enough for human beings to stay for even a minute, let alone sleep, eat, and live in them.

Of course, these problems are faced by blue-color workers, who are obviously at a disadvantaged position compared to qualified, professional expatriates working at local companies as teachers, accountants, etc. Yet, this does not mean that qualified, professional people from foreign countries do not face difficulties here. They do. One example was the helpless condition in which doctors and teachers working in the Maldives found themselves, when Maldivian currency was devalued, and a dollar shortage played economic havoc in the country towards the last part of Nasheed’s presidency. While they were practically robbed at the black market, where they were forced to go to get dollars, the government was sleeping, and no one was interested in what happened to them.

In short, we have failed to respect the basic human rights of expatriate workers—especially the uneducated laborers. Those poor souls spend their lifetime’s savings, and often take huge sums as loans, to come here with the hope of finding reasonably paid, honest work. However, both agents and employers usually and literally rob them, and they are left with no choices, not even the choice to go back home as they do not often have enough money to buy a ticket back home. They are forced to overwork at insanely low wage rates, and those wages are often delayed by days, weeks, or even months. In this status, it is better to stop bringing them.

Another point to be noted is that these problems are faced by expatriate labourers from countries in this region, or Asia only. An overwhelming majority of the foreign workforce employed here is from countries like Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. However, we do have professionals from Western countries, and they are treated as if they are “messengers of god”, the West being apparently the new god of the Maldives.

It is the government which says that the population of expatriate workers would reach a number equal to the local population by the year 2018. This means serious problems for the nation, in addition to problems for those workers. Such a state of affairs can upset the sociopolitical stability in the country, and what it will yield as consequences, we do not know—they are definitely likely be destructive for this nation.

Expatriate workers take out hundreds of millions of Rufiyaa every year as salary. The extent of negative impacts of this on the national economy is not difficult to understand. We are a nation that is so lazy and languid that it imports palm-milk—something that is all over the place in this country. That being the case, our economy will certainly one day crash, if we do not take immediate and drastic steps to stop hundreds of millions spent on foreign labourers.

It is time that the whole nation should turn to think about the matter and find constructive solutions. I am not a xenophobic or anything, but I do think that for the sake of both expatriate workers, whom we, seemingly, do not have the ability to respect and be kind to, as well as for the sake of our nation, we must design and implement strong measures to stop this. One such measure, for instance, would be to make it illegal for local employers to employ foreign labourers or professionals unless there is a shortage of the skill needed in the country. Whether there is a shortage or not must not be left to be decided by each employer for himself--the Government can work out a policy framework which specifies the areas of work for which foreigners can be employed.

It is high time that we started thinking about this nation, instead of being thoughtlessly enslaved to a handful of politicians who are not worth a second of one’s time.