Position Paper

Committee: United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)

Topic: Labour Migrant Crisis in India
Country: Pakistan

The ideals of universal human rights are one of the most important political legacies of the 20th century.
The Preamble to the UN Charter additionally calls for tenaciousness to reaffirm faith in fundamental
human rights. However, it has been recognized with time that at least more than half of the migrants lack
the equality all human beings deserve. >>>>……….>>>>

The Migrant Crisis in India in 2020 had been one of the biggest humanitarian crises observed worldwide.
The homeward exodus of more than 11 million migrant workers, resulted in painful experiences and
significant deaths. The numbers are still not known due to the lack of data being compiled by the
government. The migrants were abandoned in a spur of the moment due to a short notice of the lockdown,
resulting in a state of chaos. Migrant labourers were devoid of the basic human rights as formulated by
the United Nations. ……………………….

Pakistan believes in establishing and strengthening necessary institutional mechanisms for the protection
and promotion of human rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan. At the onset of the pandemic,
Pakistan’s labour migrants were also affected. The Government of Pakistan took balanced and practical
measures to handle labour migration within the cities of Pakistan. Pakistan’s main concern was for the 11
million labour force working in 50 countries. A significant number of expatriate labours were expected to
return to Pakistan. Pakistan took necessary practical measures to control and handle the situation by
extending a helping hand through repatriation flights from the UAE, where 1.5 million Pakistanis, many
of whom are low-wage workers were stranded. Pakistan streamlined the process by working with other
governments to give their citizens security, a process which India did not do. ………......

In India’s case, the population of labour migrants, both on the domestic and international front are
significantly higher than in Pakistan. Hence it is imperative that such a crisis in future can only be avoided
with the help of appropriate laws and training the local government officials to administer the laws through
a human rights perspective. The Government of India’s Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act 1979 and the
Unorganized Workers Social Security Act 2008 need to be relooked while keeping in mind the benefits
to be reached out to migrant labours during a crisis. These laws should bring in accountability of
government officials for handling situations in the light of Human Rights violations. Migrant labours are
generally from the lowest economic strata and in a lockdown, they need economic support irrespective of
their location. A comprehensive database of the migrant worker’s current location, home address,
demographic profile and other related employment information would help in effectively delivering the
various beneficial schemes, which India already has in place. It will also help in the planning of logistics
by government officials in the event of a future crisis. Pakistan has effectively used similar tools to handle
migration during the pandemic lockdown.

Pakistan has offered India COVID aid before and is ready to extend a supporting hand in terms of sharing
our opinions and experience since Pakistan has always stood for human rights and always will.
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references: business-humanrights.org “India: A year after lockdown, policy and data to help improve livelihood of migrant
workers remains inadequate”; Pakistan’s government portal; ILO publications; reuters.com “Pakistan concerned at workers
returning from UAE with coronavirus; thehindu.com “The ‘nowhere people’ of COVID-19 need better legal safeguards”