In 2007, Nepal and UAE signed their first labor agreement. In 2017, a ban was imposed on Nepali domestic workers — who are mostly comprised of women. This ban was imposed to regulate labor standards and environments for domestic workers. However, this ban ended up creating a large economic barrier for domestic workers, leading many to take illegal and dangerous routes to be able to work. For example, some would travel to other countries through a visit visa, and use that limited visa to work. This leads to complications, as they are not being recorded so no labor standards can be set in place/enforced, leading to possible exploitation and abuse. This is the very situation in which arbitrary domination is at it’s most crucial point of impact: if there is a ban that leads to domestic workers to take dangerous/illegal routes to work, which leads them to not be known about/recorded, then they cannot be protected. Even the “best” employer knows this in the back of their mind and may end up taking advantage of this situation (either through neglecting their needs, not paying them, not letting them leave, deporting them suddenly, reporting them to authorities, abusing them, and/or more).
In 2020, Nepalese domestic workers were allowed to resume travelling for domestic work jobs, but the Nepalese government set up pre-conditions. These conditions included laws for protecting the workers, establishing an agreement between Nepal and the destination countries focused on wages and leave, agreements on safety and health for the workers, requiring insurance coverage, and more. While these conditions are all necessary and it is great to see countries at least trying to implement some legal standards to protect domestic workers, as it has been shown throughout Parrenas’ Unfree, simply creating standards is not the same as enforcement and regulation of those standards.
There was major backlash from human rights and activists when Nepal imposed the ban on domestic workers. This backlash ranged from claims of limiting women’s mobility and freedom to general economic issues. As noted in Parrenas’ Unfree, countries like Nepal and the Philippines rely largely on remittances from migrant domestic workers. In addition to this backlash, the UAE has stated that they need Nepal to fully let domestic workers to migrate to their countries, but the UAE has historically shown its lax nature in enforcing any kind of labor standard, letting kafeels basically do whatever they want with their domestic workers.
This leads the government – and the rest of us – to wonder, how can we effectively implement and enforce labor standards, without restricting people’s freedom or hurting a nation’s economy?
News Article
Article about pre-conditions
Written by: Lily Philbrook
It is frustrating and incredibly sad to realize that protecting workers and their rights isn’t a top priority. One could argue that countries such as the Philippines are more concerned about maintaining the influx of remittances that fuel their economy than about stopping the exploitation of workers. As you mentioned the Philippine government has created legal standards but they have no way to enforce such standards; thus, they are more like guidelines. I understand that the government doesn’t want to risk hurting their economy but how long can they bear to remain dependent on remittances when they know the associated risks? A broken system requires more than a temporary fix. Providing guidelines on workers’ rights is a band-aid that won’t stop the exploitation of workers. A system built on the exploitation of workers is a broken system. Your question about how we can implement and enforce labor standards is a tough question that would require a large amount of cooperation from all parties involved. Those with power will likely not want to relinquish it even if it is for the better good.
I agree with your sentiment that those in power would not want to fix this issue. It seems kind of like a self-fulfilling prophesy: don’t try to fix the economy so then people have to rely on things like this so then the country becomes dependent upon these remittances. Maybe focusing on infrastructure and creating jobs is the first step?