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MANILA--A Hong Kong-based regional migrant group lashed out on Sunday at the implementation of an integrated immigration database system in the Gulf Cooperation Council member-states, saying the new measure could not guarantee the protection of foreign workers' human rights.
The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) said the operation of the new database system in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates "may be manipulated and can lead to criminalization of migrant workers and arbitrary termination of their employment."
"This system of integrating immigration database can help facilitate a better immigration processing. However, considering the flawed legal system for filing grievances in many of the GCC countries, this system can be a big threat to migrant workers' job security," APMM managing director Ramon Bultron said in a statement from Hong Kong.
Bultron cited the experience of an overseas Filipino worker who was deported back to Manila immediately upon arriving in Qatar.
The OFW was supposed to resume his work after his vacation but was told by the immigration officer that his name was among those who were blacklisted in the GCC countries. No further information or reason for deportation was mentioned, according to Bultron.
Bultron added that complaints against a worker or unresolved police case in one of the GCC country could be a basis for blacklisting a migrant worker in any of the GCC countries.
"Commonly in the Gulf countries, migrant workers who have filed grievances against their employers or sponsors or have run away because of abuses, face criminal charges that are usually fabricated and manipulated. Thus, unless the legal systems in the GCC countries improve, this system of blacklisting will remain a threat. It will continue to criminalize migrant workers without subjecting them to fair trial and due process" he explained.
Bultron aid he believed there was no prior notice to the public about the policy and governments of sending countries like the Philippines were probably ignorant of such system.
He recalled that in late 2007, a plan to do such integration of immigration database in the GCC countries was publicized in some dailies. However, since then, nothing was heard about it until the Qatar case was reported.
Bultron said APMM would continue to monitor and study the effects of the GCC immigration system, especially among migrant workers.
"We will demand to the government of major sending countries in the GCC like the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, to extend all diplomatic means to ensure the protection of their countrymen working in the GCC countries," he said.
