The ultra exploitation of workers who have migrated from one (usually poorer) country to another is worldwide. Intimidation of various means is used to make them vulnerable and likely to have the worst of conditions imposed on them. They are also likely to be expelled when no longer needed.
Chinese authorities in Yunnan Province have intensified a crackdown on undocumented migrant workers from Myanmar, with reports of mass detentions and deportations leaving thousands stranded in the border town of Muse. Labour rights organisations say that the enforcement campaign has created widespread fear among migrant workers still in China. Recently at the Xinqiang Garment factory in China round 80 workers from Myanmar were reportedly detained by Chinese authorities after resigning in protest over alleged unpaid overtime, low wages, violence and exploitative working conditions. factory management alerted authorities to the workers’ undocumented status after they left their jobs.
Bahraini authorities have excluded migrant workers from an emergency wage support program during the Iran conflict. Migrant workers who make up three-quarters of the private work force, are excluded even though they have contributed to the emergency fund for years. Many are now in dire situations due to job losses and unpaid or delayed wages. Whereas they are paying a month’s salary to insured Bahraini nationals in the private sector from the Unemployment Insurance Fund, with unanimous parliamentary approval.
Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, is one of the wealthiest, most profitable and influential corporations in the world but leaves the labour it requires, mostly migrant, to project management o companies like the Italian firm Saipem, which in turn depend on small labour supply companies. This as in so many other cases of sub-contracting means Aramco can avoid responsibility for severe industrial accidents, leaving the sub-contracted of the sub-contracted to deal with such circumstances by forcible deportation.
This is not exclusive to Asia or the Gulf. French hotel brand Accor has been faced with allegations of exploitation of workers and asylum seekers at the Ibis Styles Hotel in Arnhem. A report published in NL Times stated that workers were recruited to the hotel through a company called AHR Clean, after which they reported several allegations of wage theft, delayed wages, or partial wages. Workers were employed irregularly, without work permits and there were reported irregularities in contracts given to asylum seekers.