- Advertisement -
In Madagascar, it’s a short video that has not stopped running on social networks since this weekend. This is the funeral of a young domestic worker at the non-Muslim cemetery in Jubai, Saudi Arabia. The young woman’s body, wrapped in a single white sheet, is buried using a bulldozer. Images that aroused emotion and indignation among a population that respected funeral rituals, and which in turn revive the debate on migration – banned since 2013 – by these workers in the Gulf countries.
as reported from Antananarivo, Sarah Tétaud
The video, filmed by a Madagascan, lasts just over a minute. On a piece of dirt that extends as far as the eye can see, a construction machine works to cover a hole with soil in the bottom in which the remains have been deposited. We see several women dressed in black chadors also filming the scene in tears. “Stop, stop, calm down, get up, it’s full of dust,” says the woman filming to the collapsed one next to her.
We are on March 11th. These Malagasy workers have just attended the funeral of their compatriot. The deceased, originally from Sambava, in northern Madagascar, died in September last year, a sudden death after she had just broken her contract as a domestic worker. Due to lack of money, his family could not get his body returned to the Big Island.
At least 500 Malagasy in Saudi Arabia
After the video was released, the reaction in the country was immediate. But for the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) and Noémie Razafimandimby, the national administrator of the Reframe project aimed at improving the recruitment framework for migrant workers, it is no longer enough to stand up: “It shocks society, but the problem is remain the same: the girls continue to leave and try in every way sometimes to leave their village to reach these countries. And it will remain the same as long as no measures are taken to present alternatives to these women who today want to migrate and hope to have a better life in these countries, as long as the social partners and civil society organizations will not have intensified their interventions to raise awareness of human trafficking and secret recruitment, and as long as the media do not contribute to the sustainability of reflection and objective information on this phenomenon. ”
Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs counts at least 500 female citizens of Saudi Arabia. Almost all are domestic workers. However, the exact statistics do not exist. Since 2013, Madagascar has introduced a decree suspending the migration of these workers to so-called “high-risk countries” and regularly designated for the exploitation of foreign workers. But thanks to secret networks, many young women, who are a little informed, manage to join the Gulf countries to be hired, making the count impossible for the Malagasy state.
Complaints of abuse
Currently, Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are the countries with the most complaints from young Malagasy women for exploitation, abuse and mistreatment. These migratory movements towards the Gulf countries started in the 90s. The situation began to degenerate as unscrupulous recruiters spread across Malagasy territory, promising young, uneducated women a salary and a more decent life.
The ILO is fighting to fight corruption within the Malagasy administrations, which are illegally facilitating the departure of these young girls, and within the recruitment agencies, which, despite their lack of approval, continue to secretly send workers into these countries. The ILO also works to establish effective complaints and grievance mechanisms for victims of abuse and human trafficking.
.
