NATIONAL SEMINAR ON DOMESTIC WORKER ILO CONVENTION 189

07 September, 2016

On the morning of 18th March 2015, there was a scheduled national seminar event, on the subject of “Protection of the Rights of Migrant Domestic Workers: Importance of Ratification of ILO Convention 189.” This seminar was organised by WARBE Development Foundation, with support from AWO International e.V. It was hosted by and held at the National Press Club, in Dhaka. Featuring various guest speakers, and covering a broad range of focal points regarding the topic at hand, the seminar offered an extensive insight into the facilitation and appropriate handling of the matter of the protection of women migrant workers’ rights and a general upholding of their basic rights and dignity. Among the speakers, notably, was Mr. Israfil Alam, MP, as the Chief Guest, and Guest Speakers including, Ms. Nurjahan Begum Mukta, MP, Ms. Nisha, Chief Technical Adviser of ILO, Mr. Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed, Assistant Executive Director of Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, Mr. Abul Hossain, National Domestic Workers Association , Mr. Faruque Ahmed, Secretary General of WARBE DF, Ms. Jasiya Khatoon, Director of WARBE DF and Mr. Syed Saiful Haque, Chairman of WARBE DF, who also played a role as a moderator in the event. The event started out with the experience sharing of 2 returnee women domestic workers from KSA who were involved in domestic services for over a year. The experiences revealed that the primary barrier to communication is the difference in language. Further, the workers believed that they have been deprived of their rights due to the communication gap through not receiving the desired salary and quite frequently, they had to work longer than expected hours and without the weekend off. The main topic of conversation within the field of discussion was centred on the involvement of the above mentioned organisations within the particular context of Women Migrant Workers in and as such in regards to recruitment within the region of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The general points covered in the conference included topics such as: 1) to keep the information of agreement as transparent and coherent as possible between BAIRA and SENARCOM (a KSA based recruiting agency). 2) The Provision of building shelter homes in support of the Women Migrant Workers, on behalf of the Bangladesh Embassy situated thereof. 3) Further there was discussion of the need and abilities to equip the sector with legal preparations and appoint lawyers to fight cases within the KSA region. 4) A greater potency was insinuated in the case of Workers’ salary and benefit. 6) Lastly, the conference addressed the need for purposely and effectively enhancing the facilities at district level technical training institute, in relation to the field of work provided to the Workers. Such areas as methodology, technical, socioeconomic and financial terms and conditions were discussed, to further elaborate and mediate on the process of developing the above mentioned areas of interest. The hopes of addressing the incumbent issues and probable solutions for such possibilities were also discussed in depth and further headway was made in this direction. QUOTES FROM THE GUEST SPEAKERS: “The convention 189 speaks of fundamental rights of domestic workers and to protect themselves from any form of violence or torture within the territory of a certain house” – Ms. Jasiya Khatoon, Director, WARBE Development Foundation. “We are not proud sending women to work and earn for the country and their families because the tasks they perform abroad are laborious and not pertaining to any form of intellectual practices” – Mr. Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed, Assistant Executive Director, Bangladesh Institutes of Labour Studies. “Migrant rights and civil society organisations need to increase accountability for ratification of Convention 189 because the convention itself is revolutionary and helps to merge supply of domestic workers with International Labour demand.” – Ms. Nisha, Chief Technical Adviser, ILO “We need to strengthen our negotiations with the Government to ensure rights of domestic workers are earned and protected both at home and abroad. If necessary, we are ready to show common people how deprived women domestic workers are through a mass rally which will be a very large demonstration” – Mr. Abul Hossain, National Domestic Workers Association “Social norms must be changed and adopt new ones that will manifest equal rights and honour towards the women domestic workers; otherwise, the general point of view towards them shall remain derogatory” – Mr. Syed Saiful Haque, Chairman, WARBE Development Foundation. “We endorse for transparency by the government and the agreement made between BAIRA and SENARCOM be made public” – Mr. Md. Faruque Ahmed, Secretary General, WARBE Development Foundation “If the government could take initiatives and led campaigns to improve livelihoods and services of domestic workers before, then, of course, our government c