Clean Clothes Campaign

Undocumented
workers are
entirely deprived
of protection and
highly vulnerable
to the worst forms
of exploitation.
visas for migrant workers are tied to a specific
employer or are at least based on the principle that
the worker is employed. Workers are therefore reliant
on their employer regularly renewing their work permit
in order to maintain not only employment but also
legal status. Should a worker get dismissed, not get a
permit extension, or is made redundant they automatically
become “illegal” and will lose the already limited
rights granted to them as a “legal” worker.
This puts the employer in an extremely powerful
position as not only can they threaten employees with
job loss and loss of income but they can also remove
rights and protections that would be guaranteed to
those with citizenship. Getting legal redress for labour
rights violations, illegal dismissal, or underpayment/
non-payment of wages becomes more difficult once
a worker is dismissed and becomes de facto “illegal”.
For example, in Thailand although a migrant worker
can in theory apply for a temporary stay visa, in reality
this sort of visa is rarely granted. A Burmese migrant
worker for example who spoke up about rights violations
and lost her job would have to return to Burma
and apply for a day visa if she wished to return to
Thailand to take court action against the employer. In
Malaysia workers can apply for a temporary visa, but
this has to be renewed monthly, can only be granted
three times in a row, and has to be paid for by the
worker herself. This is entirely unrealistic for most
migrant garment workers and few are able to access
this process.
Although under ILO conventions the status of workers
should be irrelevant in terms of protection of rights
this is not followed in practice. Where companies,
auditors, or government agencies do have policies
with regard to migrant workers they are often framed
in the context of excluding undocumented workers
from employment and there are no provisions for
safeguarding their rights. For example the UK Gangmasters
Agency, set up to enforce legal protection
of migrant workers in the agriculture sector explicitly
excludes from its remit any workers who do not have
permission to work. 5 Asda-Walmart’s only reference to
migrant workers’ rights is to check on the legal status
of those employed in supplier factories. 6
The division of workers into documented and undocumented
workers for the purpose of legal or other
forms of protection works to undermine the rights of
all workers. It is clear that such distinctions do not
prevent undocumented workers from gaining employment
but it ensures that they remain “underground”
and easily exploitable.
Impact on freedom of movement
The policing of migration policy has a serious impact
on the freedom of movement of migrant workers. The
most extreme example of this is in Malaysia, with its
much-feared RELA (Katan Relawan Rakyat Malaysia/
Volunteers of Malaysian People). RELA is an armed
but poorly trained volunteer corps that operates under
the powers of the Home Affairs Ministry. 7 RELA has
the authority and power to stop any person anywhere
who they believe to be a terrorist, undocumented
migrant, or other undesirable person and arrest them
without a warrant. As many employers retain the
documents of their employees, even a documented
worker may not be able to move about freely without
fear of arrest. Once a worker has been taken into
detention it may be impossible to prove their legal
status and ensure release. Similar issues are reported
in Thailand, where migrant workers are often stopped
by the police, asked for bribes, assaulted, and/or
arrested. 8 The regularity and unpredictability of these
policing methods within areas populated by migrant
workers means many chose to stay in and around the
factories or workshops in order to evade arrest.
Deportation as punishment
Even in countries where immigration police are not
patrolling the streets deportation is often the resulting
consequence of any kind of industrial action. There
are numerous cases of employers simply calling in
immigration officials if workers become troublesome,
or if they are simply no longer needed. At the CMT
factory in Mauritius hundreds of Sri Lankan workers
were arrested, detained for several days on buses in
the plantations, and then forced onto flights back to
Sri Lanka. According to one of the workers,
“They took us to the airport and left us there for three
days. We could not travel. We had no tickets. Armed
gunmen, who we were told were from the Mauritius
12 False Promises Migrant Workers in the Global Garment Industry