Kerala-model body to protect non-resident Tamils

CHENNAI: Referring to the plight of the 11 Tamils who were forced to work without pay for nine months in Malaysia, activists here have appealed to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to set up a body on the lines of the Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) to redress the grievances of non-resident Tamils. At present, the illiterate work force from Tamil Nadu, in pursuit of overseas jobs, often end up underpaid, with extended working hours and or no wages, as in the case of the 11 persons who returned home on Thursday.Most of the agents approach gullible illiterates and lure them with the promise of lavish lifestyle, far better than their urban life dreams, and a fat pay package.The agents will then press them for a lakh or a few to process the application and for the flight ticket.On the other side, the agents will contact the employer and ‘sell’ the victims away for a stipulated period of time or even for lifetime.The workers will bear the brunt as the employer will not treat them as employees, but as slaves and force them to work for at least 15 hours.  There will be no end to their sufferings as the victims would have had their passports taken away and executed a bond without even knowing its contents.According to Migrant Employees Education for Transformation, Prevention and Protection Union (MEETPPU) secretary S Siva Somasundaram, this was the plight of most of the unskilled Tamil labourers elsewhere in the world. Siva said that no agency or agent should be allowed to send illiterates for work abroad.“The issue should be taken up by the State by constituting a separate body, which should fix the minimum wages per country based on the occupation,” he suggested.“Besides recruitment, the body should develop mechanisms to rescue the Tamils affected by their employers as it was done by NORKA. It should also act in such a way that it gets compensation for the affected,” he added.