Even though our economy heavily relies on the remittance sent by our migrant workers, the government has historically done a poor job in lending them a helping hand -- particularly in terms of ensuring robust safety measures.
As such, it is unacceptable that the administrative agencies responsible for keeping a count of the number of migrant workers currently working abroad are unable to do so in an accurate and reliable fashion.
Unreliable services when it comes to our migrant workers has been the de facto for some time now. This lack of pro-activity also creates difficulties in designing a robust safety net that can cater to our hard working men and women abroad, while also raising questions regarding the legitimacy of the means through which these people often migrate abroad.
Accurate numbers are particularly important for the creation of social safety measures, which are generally based on official statistics provided by various government organizations. Which is why any confusion regarding that specific figure can have a domino effect in the services afforded to them.
It is no big secret a large portion of our migrant workers are without proper documentation which leaves them as easy targets for exploitation. This, no doubt, messes with the official government figures meaning that cracking down on these operations would help us get our count right as well.
The numerous government and non-government agencies responsible for statistics need to focus on better collaboration to be more accurate in formulating a count. Relevant authorities also need to crack down on trafficking operations and bring in the people who are already living without documentation under any and all safety nets.
Remittance from our migrant workers is a cornerstone upon which our economy has progressed. We need to do better by them.
