ahlam1399
06-08-2016, 12:58 AM
FALAM, CHIN STATE, Myanmar: Van Biak had only been away from her family in Leilet in **rth west Myanmar for two weeks, but her mother was in tears as they embraced on the veranda.
Biak and her older sister Van Hnem left to find work as maids in Singapore with few job opportunities in their remote village in Chin State, the poorest region of Myanmar where 73 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Biak and Hnem were aware of the risks.
A**ther maid from Leilet has been working in Saudi Arabia for six years without pay or hope of return - and this was **t isolated case.
A number of high profile cases of worker abuse prompted the government in September 2014 to put a temporary ban on women going abroad to find work as maids.
But with few eco**mic opportunities at home, the number of women leaving to get jobs abroad as domestic workers has **t abated and more do so illegally, prompting calls for the newly appointed government of Aung San Suu Kyi to lift the ban.
"I’m ready to work hard and face difficulties abroad in order to help my family," said Biak, who, at age 15, was too young to get a passport and so returned home.
Hnem, who is 18, made it to Singapore with six other girls from Leilet, lured by the chance to make up to US$370 a month compared to Myanmar’s mininum wage of about US$67.
"I am so scared they will be used as slave labour," said her mother, a fear echoed by all parents whose daughters are **w working abroad illegally.
For the ban has **t only failed to stop women from Myanmar going abroad to work, but it has led to a black market that puts the women at greater risk of exploitation and slavery, according to the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Eco**mics (HOME), set up to protect migrant workers’ rights in Singapore.
Since the ban was implemented, the fee paid by workers to secure a job abroad has increased in order to facilitate the bribes required to circumvent the ban.
Workers do **t start to see any money themselves until this debt is paid off.
Moreover, since these workers often leave their country as a tourist, they are **t protected by labour or migration laws.
Jolovan Wham, executive director of HOME, said the number of Myanmar maids in Singapore grew 50 percent between 2013 and 2015 with over 30,000 there **w which was evidence that the ban was **t effective.
"Unfortunately, a lot of Singaporean employers request Myanmar maids because they are more affordable and generally more compliant," Wham told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Sian Men Mawi legally worked as a maid in Singapore before moving to China, lured by the promise of a lucrative employment contract.
She arrived in Guangzhou on a tourist visa.
Sian Men, 26, said she was enslaved by her agent who locked a number of Myanmar girls in separate houses and rotated them through different jobs, holding their wages and never letting them pay off their debts.
"We didn’t k**w the agent would exploit a**ther human being like that," Sian Men said from her mother’s home in the Chin village of Zawgnte.
Sian Men managed to escape and returned to Myanmar by bus, evading the police who manned checkpoints along the route.
"We get into difficulty because of the agents but we can’t do anything about it because we don’t have legal passports or work permits.
We have to do what the agency says," she said. The Thomson Reuters Foundation managed to get hold of Melody, Sian Men’s agent in Guangzhou, who admitted to enforcing a six month debt bondage period but denied exploiting her employees.
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Biak and her older sister Van Hnem left to find work as maids in Singapore with few job opportunities in their remote village in Chin State, the poorest region of Myanmar where 73 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Biak and Hnem were aware of the risks.
A**ther maid from Leilet has been working in Saudi Arabia for six years without pay or hope of return - and this was **t isolated case.
A number of high profile cases of worker abuse prompted the government in September 2014 to put a temporary ban on women going abroad to find work as maids.
But with few eco**mic opportunities at home, the number of women leaving to get jobs abroad as domestic workers has **t abated and more do so illegally, prompting calls for the newly appointed government of Aung San Suu Kyi to lift the ban.
"I’m ready to work hard and face difficulties abroad in order to help my family," said Biak, who, at age 15, was too young to get a passport and so returned home.
Hnem, who is 18, made it to Singapore with six other girls from Leilet, lured by the chance to make up to US$370 a month compared to Myanmar’s mininum wage of about US$67.
"I am so scared they will be used as slave labour," said her mother, a fear echoed by all parents whose daughters are **w working abroad illegally.
For the ban has **t only failed to stop women from Myanmar going abroad to work, but it has led to a black market that puts the women at greater risk of exploitation and slavery, according to the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Eco**mics (HOME), set up to protect migrant workers’ rights in Singapore.
Since the ban was implemented, the fee paid by workers to secure a job abroad has increased in order to facilitate the bribes required to circumvent the ban.
Workers do **t start to see any money themselves until this debt is paid off.
Moreover, since these workers often leave their country as a tourist, they are **t protected by labour or migration laws.
Jolovan Wham, executive director of HOME, said the number of Myanmar maids in Singapore grew 50 percent between 2013 and 2015 with over 30,000 there **w which was evidence that the ban was **t effective.
"Unfortunately, a lot of Singaporean employers request Myanmar maids because they are more affordable and generally more compliant," Wham told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Sian Men Mawi legally worked as a maid in Singapore before moving to China, lured by the promise of a lucrative employment contract.
She arrived in Guangzhou on a tourist visa.
Sian Men, 26, said she was enslaved by her agent who locked a number of Myanmar girls in separate houses and rotated them through different jobs, holding their wages and never letting them pay off their debts.
"We didn’t k**w the agent would exploit a**ther human being like that," Sian Men said from her mother’s home in the Chin village of Zawgnte.
Sian Men managed to escape and returned to Myanmar by bus, evading the police who manned checkpoints along the route.
"We get into difficulty because of the agents but we can’t do anything about it because we don’t have legal passports or work permits.
We have to do what the agency says," she said. The Thomson Reuters Foundation managed to get hold of Melody, Sian Men’s agent in Guangzhou, who admitted to enforcing a six month debt bondage period but denied exploiting her employees.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/cuvpx8rICf0
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~3/cuvpx8rICf0/125925-Myanmar-women-fear-ban-on-working-as-foreign-maids-put-them-at-risk)