The Indian Government must urgently comply with a Supreme Court
order to ensure the wellbeing of more than 100 million migrant
workers, after coronavirus measures left them jobless, forcing them
to travel long distances home, UN independent human rights experts
said on Thursday.
“We are appalled at the disregard shown by the Indian Government
towards internal migrant labourers, especially those who belong
to marginalized minorities and lower castes”, said the Special
Rapporteurs on the right to housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, and
on extreme poverty, Olivier De Schutter.
Instead of protecting their rights, the experts maintained that
the Government has not only failed to address migrants’ “dire
humanitarian situation” but further exacerbated their
vulnerability, “with police brutality and by failing to stop
their stigmatization as ‘virus carriers’”.
Heed the Supreme Court
After losing their income and with many migrants forced by their
landlords to vacate their homes, the experts said many were
living in intolerable conditions, hungry and without shelter,
saying: “We hope the Supreme Court order will be promptly
implemented and help to dramatically improve the situation of
internal migrant workers”.
The Supreme Court has ordered the Government to properly register
them, ensure free transportation and provide the migrants with
shelter, food and water until they reach their homes.
Moreover, railway companies are mandated to ensure trains are
available to transport them back to home villages, as requested
by the Government.
Inadequate relief
Many internal migrants have also been assaulted by police for
violating the sudden lockdown orders put in place by the Indian
Government on 24 March, which, that took no account of the
difficulties many vulnerable people faced in complying with them.
“While we applaud the Government’s efforts so far to provide
‘relief packages’ for people living in poverty, and to schedule
extra train rides, these have been clearly inadequate and
insufficient due to the vast majority of internal migrant workers
not qualifying for relief packages, and the lack of coordination
among state governments for the transportation of internal
migrants”, the independent experts said.
Although the scale of the COVID-19 crisis in India is “testing
the Government’s commitment to protect the rights of the most
vulnerable members of society”, they maintained that by urgently
assisting internal migrant workers, in compliance with Supreme
Court’s order, “it will give the Government the opportunity to
show its willingness to comply with its responsibilities under
human rights law.”
The experts’ call, also conveyed directly to the Indian
Government, has been endorsed by Special Rapporteur on the right
to food, Michael Fakhri; the Special Rapporteur on the right to
physical and mental health, Dainius Pūras; and the Special
Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes.
Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the
Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back
on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The
positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are
they paid for their work.
