The plight of migrants lured to Iraq by the promise of a well-paid
job and left stranded without work, money or documents in
warehouses at Baghdad's airport or camped out on roadsides, has
highlighted again the need for greater protection of migrant
workers.

An IOM assessment last week of a group of Bangladeshi, Indian,
Nepalese and Sri Lankan migrants camped out near roadsides close to
the airport, found nearly 60 men in a desperate situation. Some of
the migrants had no shelter at all, covering themselves with
whatever they could find lying around. Others were living in tents
or containers but all were without running water or electricity.
Food was being provided on an ad hoc basis by the US military and
Iraqis living nearby.

 

"We are very worried about these men who need humanitarian help.
Winter is fast approaching and they cannot be left to stay out in
the open like this without proper facilities," says IOM's Chief of
Mission for Iraq, Rafiq Tschannen.

All the migrants had borrowed money or sold off land, businesses
or homes to pay up to USD 3,000 to middlemen to work in Iraq that
would pay much greater salaries then they could ever hope to earn
at home.

Upon arrival, however, there were no jobs and for some of them,
their passports were also taken away by the recruiters. Although
some in the group have found other work by themselves, mainly as
cleaners or doing other service labour, most of the men have now
been in Iraq for four months without a job or income.

There is a possibility that there may be more migrants in a
similar plight at this site alone that IOM is unaware of, while a
reported 1,000 migrants from various nationalities, predominantly
South Asian and contracted by a catering company, are being kept in
three warehouses in a secured area around the airport without their
passports.

During the assessment at the roadside camp last week, some of
the migrants begged IOM to help them return home while others felt
that they couldn't go back until they could pay off the debts they
had incurred to get to Iraq. Their lack of papers puts them in a
very difficult and vulnerable situation.

Some Nepalese migrants have managed to go home either through
assistance from family back home or by borrowing money from fellow
Nepalese migrants with jobs in Iraq, thereby increasing their
debts.

IOM will soon be providing voluntary return and reintegration
assistance to eight Nepalese migrants.  However, the
Organization is urgently seeking funds to help another 11 migrants
and potentially hundreds more.

Since 2007, the Organization has been assisting migrants who
became victims of human trafficking in Iraq or who ended up in
exploitative situations with their voluntary return home along with
medical or reintegration support when needed.

The higher wages being paid for migrant labour in Iraq where
insecurity and violence has led to a shortage of a stable pool of
workers among nationals has attracted workers from Asia as well as
some African countries to Iraq. However, the need for migrant
labour has encouraged human smuggling and trafficking as well as
the abuse of migrants by recruitment companies.

For further information, please contact:

Rafiq Tschannen

IOM Iraq

Tel: +962 79 624 4887

E-mail: "mailto:rtschannen@iom.int">rtschannen@iom.int

or

Jean Philippe Chauzy

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 79 285 4366

E-mail: "mailto:pchauzy@iom.int">pchauzy@iom.int

or

Jemini Pandya

Tel: + 41 79 217 3374

E-mail: "mailto:jpandya@iom.int">jpandya@iom.int