The English have an expression when they
are desperate for something, which is “I’m dying for…” as in “I’m dying for a
cup of tea”. Health educators have used the double
entendre and coined slogans such as “I’m dying for a cigarette”. With so many people out of work, especially
young people, they might be forgiven for saying that they are “dying for a
job”. Discussing the determinants of health, as we have been these last few
weeks, there’s been general agreement that productive employment is possibly
the single most important determinant, as it brings income, purpose, esteem,
structure, identity – in short, a package of economic and psycho-social
benefits that mean it’s no surprise that the suicide rate for the long term
unemployed is many times that of the employed in the global North.
Two utterly shocking news events of the
last couple of weeks have shown that ‘dying for a job’ all too often becomes a
reality – firstly the scandal of the situation facing Nepali workers building
the football stadia in Qatar, and secondly the plight of migrants escaping from
lack of opportunities in Africa, through Libya, and drowning in the Mediterranean.
If the International Labour Organization’s
definition of modern-day slavery is used, the Nepalese workers can be described
as such. They are reported to have said things like, “ We were compelled to
come just to make a living; we’d like to leave, but the company won’t let us”.
The Guardian newspaper has stated that almost one worker died every day during
this summer (44 workers between 4 June and 8 August), usually from heart
attacks or accidents at work. These are largely fit young men but they were
reportedly denied water, food, pay, and lived in appallingly squalid
conditions. The Nepalese government put the figure of dead at 70 this year and
warned that 4,000 deaths could occur before the kick off in 2022. More than a
million workers are building the nine new stadia plus the entire infrastructure
required to hold the football World Cup. The International Trade Union Confederation
has also waded in to defend migrant workers from the Indian subcontinent,
warning that 600 deaths could occur annually.
It remains to be seen what will occur as a
result of the exposure of the scandal, including the criticism of FiFa, who arguably,
in this world where football is so powerful, have the strongest voice. That
workers are ‘dying’ to get into the job opportunities perceived as existing in
Europe was even more starkly shown by the sinking of a ship carrying migrants earlier
this month. That it’s unknown exactly how many people the boat was carrying
(500?) is telling in itself, as is the fact that those still unaccounted for
originated from one of Africa’s poorest countries, Eritrea. With bad weather
and the winter coming on, the boat was joined by about another 350 people who
decided to risk the crossing. More women than men are among those who did not
survive, with many simply crammed into the boat’s hold, now 47 metres down on
the seabed. Cecile Kyenge, Italy’s first and only black minister, commented
that it was absurd that survivors of shipwrecks are immediately put under
criminal investigation, given that underground immigration is a crime. Kyenge, originally
of Congolese nationality, has herself been subjected to all sorts of racist abuse.
Take a look at the Open Democracy website for a truly shocking account of what the
Minister of Integration has had to endure: http://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/susi-meret-elisabetta-della-corte-maria-sangiuliano/racist-attacks-against-cécile
The writer evokes Franz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks to demonstrate
the white-gaze that is turned on those without white skins. If a government Minister
can face this kind of abuse, there’s little sympathy in many quarters for those
drowning in the seas off Italy.
These two incidents, shocking as they are,
make the news for a short time. What’s happening in the background however is
an ongoing scandal. There have been two more sinkings (and many more fatalities) since the major one hit
the headlines last week near Lampedusa, one off Malta and one off the Egyptian
shore. There’s been an estimated 19,000 migrant deaths from drowning since 1988 and tens of thousands
attempt the crossing each year. The prime minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, has
said that Malta, which picks up many of the struggling migrants, feels
abandoned by the EU, which, he says, has talked but taken no action.
Once migrants do make it to a country where
there is work they are likely to be in unskilled manual work. Over 900,000 of
Qatar’s 1.2 million migrant workers are in the ‘unskilled manual’ category and
nearly a quarter of them are from India, with another quarter from Pakistan.
These are all countries where work is hard to find, countries which have
traditionally exported their labour. What’s unusual about Qatar is that migrant
workers make up 70% of its total population, and a staggering 94% of its total
workforce. Where labour is plentiful and replaceable, it has not been in the
interest of the employing classes to look after that labour particularly well.
Industries such as mining, construction, forestry and heavy engineering account
for a disproportionate number of deaths. Yesterday marked the centenary (1913) of
the biggest mining disasters ever in the UK , where 440 workers were killed in Senghenydd,
Wales, after an explosion. However, behind these major incidents is a
steady drip drip of deaths at the workplace that are often unreported. The USA,
possibly the country that can most afford a good safety record, still sees
deaths in mining of about 35 per year (2012 figures); about 12,000 miners are
killed globally each year, much of that figure being made up by China, which
although it only accounts for 40% of global coal production, accounts for 80%
of global mining deaths. Mining unions in middle-income countries such as South
Africa and Chile have urged governments to do more, as the technology is there,
but the political will is lacking. Meanwhile, in an interesting and brave move,
Ghana has recently expelled illegal Chinese miners.
So work for many is highly injurious to
health, as is the search for it, which takes many literally into dangerous
waters. We’ve said that work that is decent work, properly paid and safe, can
be the biggest factor affecting a person’ health. Where that work is not safe,
not decent, or is exploitative, then clearly it has a commensurate effect on
health and contravenes basic human rights.
