Middle East remains favourite destination of the International migrants
Published Date: Friday, Nov 09, 2012
In a recent report titled “Regulating Private Recruitment in the Asia-Middle East Labour Migration Corridor” by Dovelyn Rannveig Agunias released in August 2012 by International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Migration Policy Institute (MPI) mentioned that Middle East is the most favourite destination of International migration. The report finds three distinct characteristics of migration to Middle East. (1) The economy of Middle East is highly dependence on migrant workers. Migrants constitute 53 percent of total population of Arab Gulf (2) Asian migrants in the Gulf remain most vulnerable and prone to human rights abuse. This is due to illiteracy among the migrant population who are more prone to exploitation. Women also constitute a very significant numbers among the migrant population i.e one third of the total labour in Oman; and (3) Middle East is the most competitive labour market in the world. This is partly due to the reason that many Asian countries who are beneficiaries of remittance promote migration by providing institutional support. The report also finds that though the onus for regulating the employer-employee relationship falls to recruitment agencies, they are often ill equipped to effectively enforce labour standards.