Fake reports of 'missing' migrant workers rise
There are situations in which the employer infringes on the rights of migrant workers and threatens them by saying that they will be reported as absconders.
Instances where employers falsely report that expatriate workers have fled or are in hiding, in order to harass and intimidate them or evade paying visa fees for them have surfaced recently.
When a migrant worker is reported as missing or absconding:
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They cannot work in the country and would not get hired anywhere
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Police and immigration will also treat them as fugitives living in the country illegally
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Will not be able to get a visa and will not get the required documents that make them ‘legal’
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No regulation to change the status of such a person
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If reported that way, the only option for the migrant is to return to their country
Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) associate Maisam Moosa Ali told Atoll Times on Thursday that some employers who threaten to report falsely or do falsely report in this manner, are violating the rights of migrant workers and there is not much action that can be taken in this regard with the system in place.
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There is no concrete policy in place that can change the 'missing status' of the person even if he or she goes to the relevant institution to show that he is not missing or absconding
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In such cases, there is no regulation specifying procedures for changing the 'status' of a migrant
"There are some cases that have been reported wrongly by mistake. The employer might have reported the migrant worker as missing because he could not locate him at the time. But later, when the migrant worker is located, and even if the employer wishes to change the ‘missing’ status, there is no way to reverse it," he said.
"[It] is actually very frustrating. When told to foreigners, they also don't understand [why there is no way to change it within the system]. But this is an issue that the authorities can easily resolve."
Some of the lawyers who spoke to Atoll Times said the cases handed over to them included:
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Two cases in which false reports of absconding or missing persons were made
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Around 20 cases related to misinformation, intimidation and accidental reporting
Mariam Shunana of Shunana & Co Law Firm shared details of the two cases reported as absconding or missing with Atoll Times on Thursday. According to her:
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In one of these cases, the employer reported it because the he did not want to pay his employees visa fee; it was reported since the migrant worker wished to terminate the job with the permission of the employer, and for non-payment of wages
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The employer initially said that the migrant worker should pay MVR 20,000 to redeem his fugitive status. Later the extortion amount was further increased to MVR 60,000
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The migrant is still labelled as a fugitive
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The second case pertains to a Chinese woman who claimed to have been locked up in a container; she was put in a container and threatened by force to quit her job on her own
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When the matter came to the notice of the authorities and lawyers got involved, the employer reported the woman as an absconder
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The woman’s 'missing status' was changed after Shunana had tweeted about it
Besides, there are increasing situations in which the employer infringes on the rights of migrant workers and threatens them by saying that they will be reported as absconders if the authority or lawyers start investigating their work-related matters, according to legal experts.
"This leads to misuse of migrant workers," Shunana said.
"We are thinking of filing such cases."
Cases of non-payment of wages to migrant workers, making them work without official documents, accommodated in crowded places where human beings should not live, and violation of human rights of migrant workers have come to the fore recently.
