Oct. 14, 2020 Bangladesh approval Bangladesh will introduce the death penalty for rape cases, after several high-profile sexual assaults prompted a wave of protests across the country 9 in recent weeks, the Guardian reported. Society

How migrants are aiding COVID-19 prompts ‘enormous rise’ in demand for cheap child labor in India the global fight against coronavirus Over 70 children were crammed into a bus, heading from Bi- har to a sweatshop in the Indian city of Rajasthan, when the authorities pulled it over. Among the faces half hidden behind By Emina Osmandzikovic and Saudi Arabia, according to the UN/IOM report. refugees from war-torn countries greater access to local colorful masks was 12-year-old Deepak Kumar. Among the major beneficiaries of migrants’ contribution labor and economic markets. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Kumar had been enrolled From cooking free meals and serving as frontline are the revenues and pension systems of Western countries. Little has substantially changed since, especially in in grade four at the school in his small district of Gaya in the medical staff to sewing face masks and producing soap, Even nations with younger populations are reaping the large refugee-hosting countries such as Jordan and Leba- impoverished Indian state of Bihar. But when COVID-19 hit migrants and refugees have become significant contribu- rewards of hosting migrants who establish start-ups and non, where local populations continue to suffer from and the country went into lockdown, the school gates shut tors to the global fight against the coronavirus disease small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). chronic unemployment. across India and have not opened since. With his parents, both (COVID-19) pandemic. The need for the skills, talents, and hard work associated Meanwhile, the World Bank has predicted a 20 percent daily wage laborers, unable to make money and put food on However, current data has not fully captured the scale with migrants and migrant workers can hardly be overstat- drop in migrant remittances by the end of this year, signi- the table, last month Kumar was sent out to find work, the of their sacrifices or the challenges they face. ed, especially at a time of pandemic-induced recessions. fying the broader economic impacts of the pandemic on Guardian reported. Contrary to populist xenophobic beliefs, migrants have “During lockdown, my parents had no jobs, and after lock- little or no connection to COVID-19’s emergence as a pan- down, my parents had no money to arrange food for us,” said demic. Rather, intense population movements, in particular Kumar, the eldest of seven. “My entire family somehow sur- of tourists, business workers, and possibly political activ- vived on one meagre meal. Most of the time, I either slept ists, have been a key vehicle of transmission of the virus. with a half or completely empty stomach. So, I joined a group That said, the presence and movement of migrants going out for work. I thought, ‘If I work, I will get money and does have a bearing on the demographic, social, cultural, at least eat good food.’” His home district of Gaya is now and economic factors influencing in a positive way the thought to have around 80,000 children working as laborers. local contexts of the global health crisis. Deepak’s father, Ramashraya Manjhi, 50, a daily wage farm Despite demanding circumstances, migrants have laborer, said he allowed his 12-year-old son to go out to work made significant sociocultural, civic-political, and eco- to save the whole family from starvation. nomic contributions to both origin and destination coun- “I would get two kilogerams of grains a day for working in tries and communities, including by being agents of the field, but after lockdown, all food ran out at home,” said change in a range of sectors. Manjhi. “I had nothing to serve my seven children to eat, so Migrants also tend to have higher entrepreneurial ac- I asked my eldest child to go out for work. My son too said if tivity compared with natives, according to the UN/IOM he worked he would get food and would also provide the same World Migration Report 2020, a trait that could prove to us.” helpful to post-pandemic recovery efforts. While large swathes of the population now work from home, many of the essential services that keep people safe from COVID-19 and help maintain lifestyles are being performed by migrant workers or undocumented immigrants. According to some estimates, migrants account for more than 10 percent of the occupations in such key sec- AFP tors as medical services, transport and storage, personal This picture taken in Dubai, UAE, shows construction workers at the site of the Expo 2020. care, and food processing. These occupations are regarded as belonging to the “Refugees are rarely seen as an opportunity and con- migrants and diaspora. Ideally, the socio-economic well- low-skill category and hence the migrants who hold tributors to local societies,” Rula Amin, the UN High being of migrants and refugees should be safeguarded them tend to get overlooked by authorities in Europe and Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) senior commu- because it is essential to post-pandemic recovery. the US when it comes to processing asylum or residence nications spokesperson for the Middle East and North The Persian Gulf region is home to two of the three applications, to say nothing of welfare benefits. Africa region, told Arab News. top remittance-sending countries in the world — Saudi MANOJ CHAURASIA Long before the pandemic forced at least a grudging “We need to go beyond symbolic stories and see the Arabia and the UAE — accounting for a total of $80.5 Indian children aboard a train leave for industrial cities for work. recognition of the key role played by foreign migrant potential of displaced populations. Otherwise we will billion in outflows in 2019, according to the World Bank. workers in different countries, international migration end up with a lot of wasted potential, a lot of doctors and Both countries have invested heavily in ensuring the While the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked devastation had occupied center-stage in the great debates of the 21st educators excluded from the local labor markets and an- safety of their migrant communities. on India, no one has suffered worse than its children. In the century. ti-pandemic efforts.” Health care professionals from the Persian Gulf region space of seven months, the country has been set back decades The close links between economic, political, and so- Since 2017, there has been historic change at an inter- have also been serving on the medical frontlines in the in the fight against child labor, child trafficking and child cial issues, on the one hand, and mobility on the other, national level with UN member states coming together US and Europe. For example, nine Emirati doctors have marriage, with the lockdown and the economic collapse that have added to the complexity of migration. Another rea- to finalize two global compacts on the manifestations of chosen to stay in France and help their local colleagues followed creating a perfect storm of poverty and exploita- son is the availability of more information on migration migration and displacement: The Global Compact for in the fight against COVID-19. tion. Schools, which are not only vital for education but act and migrants. Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, and the Global as an essential surveillance mechanism to ensure that children Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the largest migration Compact on Refugees. This article was first published on arabnews.com. Read the are kept out of the hands of child traffickers and not pushed corridors tended to be from developing countries to larg- In the Middle East, as early as 2017, there were trans- full article on: into arranged underage marriages, have been closed since er economies such as the US, France, Russia, the UAE, national and unified calls to provide all migrants and Irandailyonline.ir/News/275466.html March. Dhananjay Tingal, executive director of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan movement which rescues trafficked children, said that between April and September, it had rescued over 1,200 children who were being trafficked illegally to work in Living with aftermath of genocide factories or farms, a spike unlike anything he had seen before. The children were usually aged between eight and 18, though some were as young as six. Their average salary was usually while pursuing peace 1,000 rupees (£10.50) per month, around 40p per day. In India all child labor is illegal for children under the age How does a country or culture move on conflict to document the aftermath. her home and kneeled before her. Europe’s worst war since World War II of 14, with a few minor exceptions, and between 14 and 18 after war crimes have been committed? That led to the 150-photo exhibi- “We are friends ... we live in peace erupted. children are banned from any work that is “hazardous” or will An exhibition and book by former war tion and book published in English and now,” the Rwandan mother said. She told journalist Anthony Loyd she affect their development. correspondents sketch out a roadmap based French along with two video documents. “I forgave because I wanted to save my has tried to teach her children to renounce Tingal recounted a recent rescue operation on October 6 on work in Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda One witness is Alice, who could not life,” she told Gourevitch. “If I did not resentment but her sister Atija said it was where raids were carried out on several roadside restaurants, and other conflict zones, and underscores speak for three years after the genocide forgive him I would have passed the ha- hard to heal old wounds and reach out to known as dhabas, and automobile workshops in north Delhi. the power of forgiving, AFP reported. of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and murder of tred on to my children.” former neighbors. They rescued 12 boys, the youngest of whom was eight, who “In France, in Britain, in America, we moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. A video team filmed Emmanuel against “The efforts made to divide us from had been trafficked from neighboring states to work. Before have a lot to learn from Rwanda or North- “I felt like the world was ending,” she the lush backdrop of Rwanda’s countryside. each other succeeded in preventing us the pandemic, several of the boys had been attending school. ern Ireland,” remarked British photogra- from speaking again,” she said. “Over the past six months, child labor and child marriage pher Gary Knight, a driving force behind have become coping mechanisms for families who have fallen the project. Confessions into debt and poverty during the pandemic,” said Prabhat Ku- “If you look at the divisions in our own mar, deputy director of child protection for Save the Children societies. If countries that have (suffered) A question that quickly emerges is why India. “At the same time, demand for cheap child labor has genocide... can progress” nonetheless, some countries seem to have overcome bit- risen enormously.” it gives hope, he told AFP at the Bayeux terness and hatred while others have not. Kumar added, “Our experience is that once a child has start- Calvados Normandy Award for war cor- In Rwanda, President Paul Kagame ed working and earned even a small level of money, then they respondents. “is certainly not innocent, but he clearly are unlikely to go back to school. What follows then is a cycle Knight, 56, and more than a dozen other committed to making a peaceful and sta- of poverty and vulnerability and exploitation. These children experienced war correspondents, includ- ble society,” Knight noted. work for 16 hours on less than minimum wage, and they often ing photographer Jack Picone and reporter He said that now in Rwanda, there is no develop very serious health issues.” Philip Gourevitch, compiled “Imagine: Re- mention of whether a person is Hutu or When a strict nationwide lockdown was imposed on In- flections on peace” as a counterpoint to the Tutsi on ID cards. dia at just four hours’ notice, the devastating impact on its grisly fascination with war. Rwanda is “a dictatorship”, but hundreds of millions of migrant workers — who were left They highlight how hard it is to consol- Kagame set up tribunals staffed by “or- stranded hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away from idate peace after bitter conflict has taken dinary people” where victims could hear home without any means of making money — was well docu- place. “confessions” from those who had perse- mented. Less visible in this humanitarian crisis were the tens While far from attaining the kind of cuted them, he added. of millions of children who had been trafficked from their vil- horrors seen in the past few decades, In Cambodia, leader Hun Sen did not want lages to work in garment and jewelry factories, sweatshops YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP Knight warns that in increasingly brittle An exhibition on the Rwandan genocide has underscored the power of forgiving in helping tribunals to pursue a similar path, Knight and car workshops in urban centers such as Delhi and Jaipur, Western societies today “politicians are victims recover. said, while British reporter Jon Swain who also found themselves stranded. increasingly amplifying the differences”. charged that interference by Western govern- They returned to their villages in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and said. “My baby was taken from me and “It’s easy to kill. The difficult thing is ments there created obstacles as well. Jharkhand in droves, but the fates that awaited them there Decided to forgive killed. They chopped my hand off and I to ask for forgiveness from those who In Bosnia, political will was completely were little better. Many of their parents were daily wage labor- was cut here as well. Twenty five years survived,” he said. absent, Knight said, which resulted in a ers who had no way to earn money, and now had more mouths After becoming disenchanted with how later I still have the scar. Picone said that in Rwanda he found a “multiheaded government” that was “to- to feed. Many families took expensive loans from the unregu- his work was being used, Knight stopped “I was stabbed with a spear here,” she country where raw wounds were slowly tally dysfunctional” and “did not commit lated moneylenders, falling deeper into debt. taking war photos 13 years ago to focus said, indicating wounds to her shoulder healing. at all” to a robust peace process, he added. on other kinds of journalism. and torso. A different story emerged from Bosnia Another key factor in Rwanda was the Read the full article on: His VII Foundation sent reporters back She nonetheless “decided to forgive” and Herzegovina. presence of women in the political struc- Irandailyonline.ir/News/275465.html to places they had covered in times of her tormentor Emmanuel, who came to Amela was 25 years old in 1992 when ture, Knight added.