MIGRANT workers in certain organisations are subjected to verbal and physical abuse by their employers, said Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission representative Mithleshni Gurdayal.
Speaking at a workshop in Lautoka last week on the rights of migrant workers, Ms Gurdayal said some workers even experience suicidal thoughts due to financial obligations in their home countries, exacerbated by receiving salaries lower than initially promised.
“They’re promised that, ‘oh, you will go to Fiji and you will earn so much money’. It’s like greener pastures,” she said.
Ms Gurdayal said there were two sets of contracts signed by the workers, one in Bengali and the other in English, which were signed upon arrival in Fiji and submitted to the Immigration Department.
“I think I interviewed about 43 Bangladeshis once. This was not in 2024, but in previous years, and I was told some of them had sold their land.
“They made big mortgages to come to Fiji. They took out a loan because they had to pay something like between $15,000 and $22,000.
“Most of us don’t have that kind of cash. Imagine them. So, they take a loan, and they think that when they come to Fiji, they will be able to earn big money and be able to send it home. So, they also pay for loans. You can imagine the kind of pressure they are under.”
Ms Gurdayal said that in some instances migrant workers had spoken of being depressed and even suicidal.
“I think it was a complaint where this particular complainant was really suicidal, and I had to get him some mental help as well.”
Ms Gurdayal said employers needed to set up a face-to-face counselling session with the migrant workers.
“Secondly, their living conditions. They say that sometimes they eat, sometimes they don’t eat, but we tell them, you are getting paid, you must at least have one or two decent meals.”
She said some workers confirmed that their employers had used intimidating tactics on them.
“We’ve had complaints of migrant workers being beaten up by their employers. If not the owners, the senior managers. So, we have asked them to go to the police because that’s physical assault.”
