According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in many countries more than half of workers are employed in the informal sector with no social protection giving them access to healthcare, and in a lot of countries there is no regulatory enforcement of occupational health and safety standards.[1]
Furthermore, occupational health services that advise employers on improving working conditions and monitoring the health of workers cover mostly larger companies in the formal sector, while more than 85% of workers in small enterprises and the informal sector do not have any occupational health coverage.[2]
Unfortunately certain occupational risks, such as injuries, noise, carcinogenic agents, airborne particles and an unsafe working environment, account for a lot of chronic diseases: 8% of all cases of depression, 37% of cases of back pain, 11% of asthma cases, 8% of injuries, 9% of cases of lung cancer, 13% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 2% of leukaemia cases and 16% of cases of hearing loss. Annually, 12.2 million people, mostly in developing countries, die from noncommunicable diseases while still of active working age.[3]
On 18 December 1990 the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The States Parties to the Convention acknowledge the principles embodied in the basic instruments of the United Nations concerning human rights, including agreements on eliminating all forms of racial discrimination and discrimination against women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[4]
The preamble to the Convention expresses a conviction that the rights of migrant workers and members of their families have not been sufficiently recognised in many countries and therefore require appropriate international protection. It also notes that migration is often the cause of serious problems for members of the families of migrant workers as well as for the workers themselves, in particular because of the scattering of the family, and that it places them in a situation of vulnerability in the country of employment abroad.[5]
The Convention therefore lays down many provisions regulating and guaranteeing the rights of migrant workers, such as Article 9: “The right to life of migrant workers and members of their families shall be protected by law.” and Article 16: “1. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to liberty and security of person. 2. Migrant workers and members of their families shall be entitled to effective protection by the State against violence, physical injury, threats and intimidation, whether by public officials or by private individuals, groups or institutions.”[6]
Oman has not signed the Convention,[7] and migrants working in the sultanate face many difficulties, as well as lacking many basic rights. For example, in one recent incident on 27 March 2022, 14 workers died and another five were injured in a rockslide while working at a marble quarry in Ibri Province. The Times of Oman reported that 11 of the deceased were from Pakistan while the other three were Indian nationals. Some, according to the newspaper, were identified through fingerprint analysis.[8] An officer from the Civil Defence and Ambulance Authority had earlier told a local Arabic-language newspaper that the first six victims to be dug out of the rubble were all expatriate workers, and added: “We’ve dealt with reports of rockslides before, but we haven’t seen one on this scale for the past ten years.”[9]
This last statement illustrates how dire the situation is for workers in Oman, how little protection there is for their health and safety in the workplace, and how badly they need protection from exploitation. In addition to the two Articles mentioned earlier, Oman is also in breach of several other Articles of the Convention, such as Article 8, which guarantees freedom of movement for migrant workers, and freedom to leave any country.[10] In Oman, foreign workers cannot leave the country without permission from their employer, and risk deportation if they change employers without documentation releasing them from their previous contract.[11] Article 15 stipulates that no migrant worker may be deprived of their possessions, but housemaids have frequently reported having their passports withheld and being prevented from travelling or leaving the country, or even the house where they are working. Housemaids have also reported being subjected to physical, verbal and sexual violence and forced to work long hours.[12]
The Omani Centre for Human Rights calls on the Omani government to take serious action to safeguard the rights of migrant workers and abolish the kafala (sponsorship) system that puts them in a position of vulnerability and deprives them of many of their basic human rights, such as the right to freedom of movement and the right to be safe from cruel and degrading treatment. The Centre also urges that laws and regulatory standards be put in place to ensure safety in the workplace and monitor compliance by both government and private sector bodies.
[1] World Health Organisation. Protecting workers’ health. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/protecting-workers’-health
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-convention-protection-rights-all-migrant-workers
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Status of ratification: Interactive dashboard. https://indicators.ohchr.org/
[8] Times of Oman, 10 April 2022. Dreams of 14 victims crushed in Ibri rockslide. https://timesofoman.com/article/115449-dreams-of-14-victims-crushed-in-ibri-rockslide.
[9] سلطنة عمان.. ارتفاع عدد قتلى “الانهيار الصخري” إلى 14 شخصا (aa.com.tr)
[10] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-convention-protection-rights-all-migrant-workers
[11] Oman: Freedom in the World 2021 Country Report | Freedom House
[12] Omani Centre for Human Rights, updated 29 July 2021. International Domestic Workers Day – June 16th. https://ochroman.org/eng/2021/06/international-domestic-workers-day-june-16th/
