Tuesday, October 20 2009

URGENT action is needed for Trinidad and Tobago to be able to salvage some shred of its good name which has been severely damaged by revelations about the bad living conditions of Chinese workers.

Sunday Newsday reported the harshness of the camp at Ramsaran Trace Cunupia, where workers complained of having guns pointed at them by Nigerian security guards and of threats to be taken away in handcuffs.

Sunday Newsday reported, “The guards have been ordered to keep the Chinese workers on the compound and to not let anyone in, especially members of the media.”

Reports are that guards shouted obscenities at former government minister, Manohar Ramsaran, as he tried to take food to the workers.

Police, visiting the scene, said the hostile guards were reportedly acting on the orders of employer, Beijing Liujian Construction Corporation Limited.

Sadly, the scenario on Sunday was all too familiar as it followed the same pattern of abusiveness/heavy-handedness shown last Tuesday by Guard and Emergency Branch police officers “apprehending” the workers at Charlieville. Last Wednesday’s Newsday showed one policeman wielding his baton at a worker, while another photo showed another policeman outfitted like the movie character, RoboCop, armed with a tear-gas gun to keep a group of workers in check.

There is somewhat of a sick irony in the use of imported Nigerian security guards to allegedly threaten imported Chinese workers, all a mere ten weeks after Trinidad and Tobago celebrated Emancipation Day.

While threats are being made to withdraw the Chinese workers’ work-permits, we certainly hope the documentation of the Nigerians is in order.

Meanwhile the workers — who left wives and children halfway across the world to come here to work hard to make an honest living — now fester among the stench of urine and faeces in camp- conditions which reportedly shocked them.

We say the Government must step in and insist to the Chinese employers that these workers are entitled to the full protection of the human rights laid down in the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution, and of any local labour laws and international treaties to which this country is a signatory, such as those of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The Chinese must be supplied with interpreters and given legal counsel and medical assistance, to represent them in negotiations with their employer and to ensure their health and well-being respectively.

As the Government-run Udecott had hired the Chinese firms which in turn had brought the workers to Trinidad, the Government cannot now duck their responsibility. We suggest Prime Minister Patrick Manning appoint someone (Minister or otherwise) with sufficient clout to see to the labourers’ welfare.

We insist the Government not be party to management’s arm-twisting in this labour dispute by having Ministry of National Security revoke anyone’s work permit.

The Government hired the companies, so it must now ensure they comply with this country’s labour laws and human rights under the constitution.

If Government fails to quickly step in and act with transparency and promptness, individual lawyers should take up the case of the Chinese, and the United Nations and International Red Cross should be brought in to seek their legal and medical welfare.

Sad to say, but many parties who should know better have blatantly failed to act to ensure the well-being of these workers.

However we say the ultimate power and therefore ultimate responsibility lies with the Government.

Unless there is swift action to remedy the plight of these Chinese workers, we say the Government will be entering next month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) with a severe stain on its name, and we are certain that the CHOGM guests will be apprised of the dark history of the very buildings they are invited to marvel at.

We recall the words of PM Manning, last August 1 on Emancipation Day, “Let us remember, without bitterness but with utmost solemnity and profoundest reflection, that irremovable blot in the history of humanity, so that we strengthen our resolve against enslavement wherever it rears its ugly head.”