S07E06 Vani Saraswathi on Migrant Domestic Workers
Many migrant workers are employed as domestic workers – as gardeners, cleaners, carers – relied upon increasingly by their household employers as government investment in education, elderly care, and other social services diminishes year on year. Their remittances are important for their home countries, and more importantly, for their families. They work with few rights, and companies, whose expatriate employees often recruit these workers, have felt constrained about whether and how they can intervene.
Voices - Conversations on Business and Human Rights from Around the World · Vani Saraswathi, Salil Tripathi
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Show Notes
In this conversation, Vani Saraswathi of Migrant-Rights.org tells IHRB's Salil Tripathi why companies should be actively engaged with the workers' conditions, even if they are not their direct employers, and why they should take the responsibility seriously. She calls for the pressing need for improved national labour protections for domestic workers in the Gulf and globally, because their risks have increased dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with many of them out-of-work and stranded. She offers practical steps that can be taken to safeguard their rights.
About Vani Saraswathi:
Vani Saraswathi is the Associate Editor and Director of Projects, Migrant-Rights.org and the author of Stories of Origin: The Invisible Lives of Migrants in the Gulf.
Vani moved to Qatar in 1999, working with several local and regional publications, and launching some of Qatar’s leading periodicals during her 17-year stint there.
Since 2014, in her role with Migrant-Rights.org she reports from the Gulf states and countries of Origin. She organises advocacy projects and human rights training targeting individual employers, embassies, recruitment agents and businesses in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
She also contributes as an expert commentator on issues related to human rights in the GCC for various international publications and at international forums, including those hosted by UN agencies and is a member of the Policy Advisory Committee of the ILO Regional Office for Arab States.
Migrant-Rights.org is a one of its kind bi-lingual content-based advocacy platform that focusses on the GCC states and the corridors of migration, Asia & Africa. It was started 13 years ago by activist Esra’a El Shafei.