The island state of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean is to send home thousands of Bangladeshi workers by the end of 2009 in a move to protect local jobs in the downturn-hit textile sector.
Some 6,000 male Bangladeshi workers, 4,000 of whom work in clothing factories, have been ordered to leave within six months.
“Following the economic crisis, the textile sector is suffering and some companies need to sack workers in order to survive. So the government has decided to repatriate the Bangladeshis,” Reaz Chuttoo, President of the Confederation for Private Sector Workers, told Reuters.
Senior trade union officials said the government hoped to safeguard Mauritian jobs in a sector shaken over the last 12 months by record high oil prices, a strong local unit and the global economic downturn.
Unemployment in Mauritius rose to 8.0 percent during the first quarter of 2009 from 6.2 percent in the previous quarter, despite a $320 million (192 million pounds) stimulus package in December to bolster jobs.
Manufacturing clothing is a traditional pillar of the island’s economy. It contributes 6.5 percent of gross domestic product and accounts for 11 percent of employment, according to the Central Statistics Office.
“It is a government decision. We are going to ensure that they receive all their dues before leaving,” Labour Minister Jean Francois Chaumiere told Reuters.
* In December 2008, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a decree aimed at cutting quotas for foreign workers by half, citing the fact that immigrant workers were taking jobs from Russians.
* In February 2009, the Czech government offered free plane tickets and €500 each to any foreign workers who voluntarily agreed to go home. The move was aimed at the more than 290,000 foreign workers who were registered in the country as of November the previous year.
* In June 2009, the Kuwaiti government announced its plans to expel some 500,000 foreign workers, citing the global economic downturn which has led to rising unemployment in Kuwait. “The mass expulsion is part of a government plan to combat poverty and unemployment,” reported the Kuwait newspaper al-Rai.
* In February 2009, the Malaysian government announced plans to send home 60 percent of its two million foreign workers. “There are certain sectors where we should be able to have Malaysians working in those sectors,” Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.
“At present there are 2.1 million foreign workers in this country and I hope when their contract expires in certain sectors — if the industry does not require them — then we will be able to send them back.”
* In February 2009, the Taiwanese government’s Cabinet-level Council of Labour Affairs (CLA) announced it was implementing measures which would cut the number of foreign workers there by some 30,000 before the end of this year.
It seems as though Britain is one of the few nations with a government which is not prepared to protect its own workforce during the current economic downturn.
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