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II. STATUS OF OBSERVANCE OF UKRAINIAN MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS IN THE RECEIVING COUNTRIES

6. OTHER COUNTRIES

IRAQ. According to the information of the Ukrainian Embassy in Iraq, there were about 400 Ukrainian citizens in that country by the end 2002. Their number changed constantly because of the validity of contracts (as a rule, from three to six months, occasionally up to one year). Most of the Ukrainians worked for Russian companies under the Oil for Food UN Program.

The Ukrainian workers were represented predominantly by welders, riggers, engineers, and high-class geodesists. The Ukrainians built and modernized the electric power stations at Nadjibia, Bidji, Yusifia, An Nasiriya, Basra and other cities, and also set up and repaired oil and gas pipelines. Most of the specialists came from Kharkiv, Donetsk, Khmelnytsky and Zaporizhia oblasts.

According to the information of the Ukrainian Embassy in Iraq derived from conversations with Ukrainian workers and managers of Russian companies, the conditions of work of our specialists are fairly good. This concerns, above all, remuneration (arrears of wages or failure to pay wages are very rare), life insurance, and provision of lodgings. Depending on the qualifications of workers and terms of the contracts, average monthly wages range from US $600 to US $1,500.

When the US launched military operations in Iraq on December 20, 2003, all Ukrainian specialists were evacuated.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA. By estimates of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic, there are about 800 Ukrainian citizens on the territory of that country.

As the Ukrainian Embassy in the Republic of Korea informed, lack of social and legal protection are the main problems that plague Ukrainian migrant workers. As a rule, local enterprises hire unskilled labor for arduous work and low pay. In defiance of the laws on labor, the owners of such enterprises force the migrants to work from 10 to 12 hours five days every week as well as on Saturdays. Wages range from US $300 to US $400 and frequently are not paid at all.

The inflow of illegal aliens continues to grow. According to the data of the Korean National Police Agency, the growth rate of illegal aliens is 30.3%. Judging from the data of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Korea, 790 Ukrainian citizens violated visa and registration regulations at July 1, 2002, i.e. 56.1% more as compared with the rate in late June of the year before.

In March 2002, a two-month program was announced for illegal aliens who could voluntarily notify about their status and have it legalized for a certain period (before the date of departure, but not later than March 21, 2003). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed that the Ukrainian Embassy in the Republic of Korea did everything it could to spread this announcement and convince Ukrainian illegal works to avail themselves of the opportunity.

According to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Korea, about 96% of illegal aliens notified about their presence. But, as the Commissioner learned from the Ukrainian Embassy in that country, a substantial number of Ukrain­ian citizens who legalized their status for the established period do not intend to return home after its expiry. Many of them left their employers, which is prohibited for those who legalized their status, and took up occasional jobs instead. Some Ukrainian citizens have been residing in the country without foreign passports for many months.

JAPAN. According to the information of the Ukrainian Embassy in Japan, there is a great demand in young women for the country’s entertainment market. It is among the most profitable business that is completely under the control of criminal structures. Although prostitution in Japan is prohibited since 1957, international human rights organizations estimate that some 100,000 young women from around the world are hired annually by all sorts of nightclubs, massage salons and saunas to provide sexual services. While in the early 1990s the overwhelming number of the women came from Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines, the trend since the late 20th century has been to hire women from the former socialist countries, especially Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Romania and Moldova.

Ukrainian and Russian agencies as well as representative offices of Japanese companies specializing in employment abroad search and select the women in Ukraine. Lately, the number of Japanese agencies has increased from eight to 12 and so has the number of contracts Ukrainian companies and their Japanese partners concluded for hiring Ukrainian women for the entertainment business in Japan (from seven contracts since early 2002 against the 12 contracts for the entire 2001).

Japanese business entities or their representatives act as so-called guarantors of the Ukrainian women’s stay in Japan, thereby making it easier for the latter to acquire exit visas. Since the laws of Japan stipulate punishment of persons who assist in illegal employment of foreign citizens by imprisonment up to three years and a penalty of 2 million yen (about US $16,900), the Ukrainian women (18 to 30 years of age) are, as a rule, invited to Japan on ostensibly legal grounds to work as artistes from three months to one year. To obtain such a visa at the Japanese consulate, the women are issued documents confirming qualification and a work record of not less than two years, while the consulate provides information about the employer and terms of employment (type of activity, pay of not less than 250,000 yen, i.e. about US $2,000, and conditions of work – 48 hours per week).

Officially, Japanese laws govern the terms of work, lodgings, minimum pay, labor safety and hygiene, conditions of work, and the like. But in reality the Ukrainian Embassy in Japan has to deal with a lot of conflicts when local employers do not comply with the terms and conditions of contracts. The pay of a Ukrainian hostess is US $500-700 for 60 hours of work a week. There have been frequent cases when they were forced to provide sexual services to clients or when their honor and human dignity were brutally outraged.

Such facts are confirmed by the complaints filed with the Commissioner for Human Rights. One case in point is the appeal of Oxana S. who on behalf of her daughter, Olexandra K., 23, of Kerch, addressed to the Commissioner. In March 2002, the daughter departed for Japan (her second trip), having been issued a visa through a recruitment agency in Dniprodzerzhinsk.

The second trip did not prove to be successful. During her one and only telephone call to her mother the daughter complained about the intolerable conditions of her job and the humiliations she suffered. On July 10, 2002 she was found hanged.

By consent of her mother the deceased was cremated and the urn with the remains sent back home through the assistance of the Ukrainian Embassy in Japan. The deceased was survived by two children four and five years of age.

In response to the appeal, the Commissioner forwarded a petition to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to arrange the final settlement for the work of Olexandra K. in Japan, claim damages, and facilitate an objective investigation into the causes of her death.

Despite these difficulties, the overwhelming majority of this category of Japan women interviewed by the consular service of the Ukrainian Embassy in Japan or not against extending their short-term visas and staying on their jobs in Japan.

Among the mains reasons why Ukrainian women seek employment in Japan’s entertainment business is the unsatisfactory financial status of their families and the impossibility to find jobs in their professions in their homeland. That is why they go out of the way to continue work after the termination of their visas. Some resolve this problem by marrying Japanese men or arranging fictitious marriages. The ones who decide to stay illegally inevitably get into trouble with law enforcement bodies. In six months of 2002 alone, 16 Ukrainian women were deported for violating migration laws. The so-called guarantors and nightclub owners use this irregular situation to induce the women to engage in more dangerous activities, such as theft, fraud, storage and dissemination of narcotic substances.

According to the information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, employees of the Ukrainian Embassy in Japan, jointly with the police, have been repeatedly involved in settling conflicts related to the employment of Ukrainian citizens in that country. What impedes the effective protection of their legitimate rights and interests is the reluctance of these women to reveal their employment in the entertainment business, violations of laws and rules, and the fear of possible consequences after their return to Ukraine.

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