You are currently an adviser on mobile solutions at the International Labour Organisation. Tell us about the Work in Freedom project.
Work in Freedom is a five-year programme, led by the ILO and supported by the UK's Department for International Development. It aims to prevent the trafficking of women and girls from South Asia to India and the Middle East. The project focuses on two sectors considered especially vulnerable to abuse: the domestic work sector and the garment industry. At present five countries are covered: Bangladesh, Nepal, India as countries of origin; Lebanon and Jordan as countries of destination.
How does mobile technology fit into the project?
My role has been to explore every possible way mobile could be integrated into the project. I started by looking at the relationship between pre-migration education services and mobile phones in source countries and then looked at the role mobile played in building and consolidating social networks in destination countries. The third aspect was to look at the potential to use mobile during migration journeys.
We are still at the design stage but there is huge potential. Mobile can be used in delivering training materials, support helplines, and automated tracking systems during migration. I've been thinking about whether we could create labour exchanges online – to directly match employees with employers and cut out the intermediaries who are often seen as the problem. We could also develop mobile sites where you could rate your agent or employer.
How are mobiles currently being used by migrant women?
In Lebanon and Jordan I saw migrant women develop networks using mobile phones. These women had usually been working in destination countries for a long time and were free to access mobile technology. Where in the past they had created support networks through word of mouth, today they are using Facebook, WhatsApp and texting. I saw the impact of technology on networks such as Nari (Group of Nepalese feminists in Lebanon) who make extensive use of social networks. This is a classic example of mobile being used to extend old methods of communication.
Mobile also enables migrant women to access official support. When I was in Lebanon, I spoke to a labour attache at the Philippine embassy who told us a story about a girl who had suffered abuse, a colleague had taken a photo, and posted it on the embassy Facebook page. He had seen this post and sent it to ministry of labour, to build an evidence base for a case against that particular employer.
There are some interesting experiments in garment factories in places like Indonesia and Cambodia where Better Work is using mobile phones to help employees register grievances and feedback about working conditions. The data is then anonymised and provided to both the management of the factory and the big brands contracting the factories.
What are the challenges of using mobiles to protect migrant workers?
Literacy is a big barrier. I recently spoke to 150 women at a pre-migration training workshop in Bangladesh. About 90% of them had mobile phones but only a few had a smart phone and even less had used texting. Literacy levels among these women were very low. So the question is, how do you build online training services for consumers who are not literate?
Also, not all are able to buy smart phones and even then not all will have have a subscription that gives access to the internet.
How do you tackle these challenges?
Services like Viber provides 'stickers' and the option of drawing so you are able to communicate without words. I'd like to see Viber produce a series of stickers specifically for migrant workers.
In terms of accessibility, data connections are being rapidly rolled out. I was encouraged by conversations I had with phone companies in both source and destination countries who were interested in providing affordable support to migrant populations.
What practical ways would you like to see mobile used in the ILO project?
I would like to see women departing from countries given a safe migration 'kit'. This would include an pre-activated SIM card, a prepaid debit card, an information pack about which resources to put on their phone. It could include simple advice like how to take a picture of your identity and employment documents and sync them to the cloud – a powerful way of protecting against employers who confiscate identity documents. It would also give advice on how to access information about your labour rights, and advice on how to keep your phone on silent, or hidden.
Which existing projects are you learning from?
My approach has always been: build on what is already working. I think it would be interesting to see if information about labour rights and safe migration could be disseminated through the same channels that English language training is provided. For example in Bangladesh, BBC Media Action is supporting an English language programme which delivers training through interactive mobile voice response. The great thing about this model is that it has an inbuilt feedback loop – we can track who is opting out. We can draw similar lessons from programmes such as D.Net in Bangladesh delivering maternal health advice through SMS and short pre-recorded voice messages.
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