COVID 19 AND MIGRANT WORKERS
PRINCIPALS AND POLICY SUGGESTIONS
Conversation between Ranabir Samaddar and Biao Xiang
- Report on the Fact Finding on The condition of deported Indonesian migrants during the period of COVID 19 from Sabah, Malaysia to Indonesia (June 2019- October 2020) (Koalisi Buruah Migran Berdaulat, October 2020):
Koalisi Buruh Migran Berdaulat is a civil society association that focuses on issues of fulfilling and protecting the rights of Indonesian migrant workers. This coalition was originally formed as a response to the various conditions faced by Indonesian migrant workers in the Covid-19 pandemic situation since March 2020. This report is the result of an investigation by the fact-finding team from the Koalisi Buruh Migran Berdaulat (KBMB) on the deportation process of more than 1,700 Indonesian migrant workers during the Covid-19 pandemic from Sabah, Malaysia to Indonesia. The report’s findings refer to the period of June to September 2020…. Continue Reading »
- State of working in India 2021: One year of Covid-19, Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University, Bangalore, 2021:
This report is prepared by the Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University to study the unemployment situation in India during the COVID-19 lockdown…. Continue Reading »
- Leave or Not to leave?: Lockdown,Migrant Workers and their Journeys Home (Stranded Workers Action Network, June 5 2020):
The Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN) published a report on the jobless migrant workers who were bound to leave the sites of their employment after the sudden announcement of lockdown…. Continue Reading »
- 32 days and Counting: COVID-19, migrant workers and the inadequacy of welfare measures in India (Stranded Workers Action Network, 1 May 2020):
The Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN) published a report on the crisis faced by the migrant workers during a sudden lockdown in 27 March 2020. This report is a continuation of the first report published by the SWAN team…. Continue Reading »
- 21 days and Counting: COVID-19, migrant workers and the inadequacy of welfare measures in India (Stranded Workers Action Network, 15 April 2020):
On the 25th of March the Prime Minister (PM), Mr. Narendra Modi, announced a nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19.. The decision, while imminent, was unplanned and unilaterally made without any consultation with the state governments. This has consequently caught millions of migrant workers and the bureaucracy off-guard, leaving them no time to plan for such an emergency. While millions of migrants successfully reached their home states, only to be quarantined in camps, many remain stranded far from home, with no money or food. We are therefore confronting a lethal combination of crises: health, hunger, sanitation, and trauma, both physical and psychological. This report shows the crisis faced by the migrant workers during the sudden lockdown and how the government did not react on some vital policy decisions faced by the migrant workers…. Continue Reading »
- Citizens and the sovereign: Stories from the largest human exodus from the contemporary Indian history (A report by Migrant Workers Solidarity Network, November 2020):
The report documented Migrant Workers Solidarity Network’s (MWSN) experience of organising relief operations during lockdown. The report combines workers’ stories with in-depth interviews of social activists and labour organisers who were active throughout the country during this time. It is also an attempt to start thinking about how we can intervene now, before and within the inevitable march of millions back to India’s metropolises…. Continue Reading »
- Principles of Protection of Migrants and Refugees
More than 700 signatories endorsed the fourteen Principles of Protection, an initiative to call attention to and codify the human rights of all migrants, refugees, and displaced persons around the world in this time of COVID-19. The initiative is taken by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Cornell Law School’s Migration and Human Rights Program, and The New School’s Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility…. Continue Reading »
- Ajiveeka Bureau Report
Aajeevika Bureau has been working closely with migrant communities, both at the source and destination, primarily in two Indian states – Gujarat and Rajasthan. The FES India Office has supported Aajeevika Bureau in undertaking an in-depth field research on the condition of migrants’ in two Indian cities – Surat and Ahmedabad. The research has come up with important policy recommendations to improve the working and living condition of migrants. The outcomes of this research may prove to be useful in ongoing and future policy discourses to make conditions for migrants – Formal, Adequate and Consistent…. Continue Reading »