I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to spend the past two
Christmas seasons at a top-rated island resort in the Maldives, in a sort of
workaway situation provided by a close friend who has a higher-level position
in the company. This season, I have come to learn about some of the dark inner
workings of this place, which I find disturbing and feel compelled to put into
writing here. I don’t dare to name the resort or any of the sources of this
information for fear of any repercussions that might befall my friend here, but
it really doesn’t matter, because this particular one has a reputation, which
it loves to emphasize, of being an ethical leader in the industry, so one could
assume that all the others are similar or worse.
The most central of my concerns is the quantity and quality of
outsourced labor present in the resort. It is common practice in South/Southeast
Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and other parts of the world to bring in cheap labor
from impoverished countries, who are supplied by employment agencies that often,
notoriously (https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/06/nepal-unscrupulous-recruiters-given-free-rein-to-exploit-migrants/),
entrap their workers in exploitative situations, essentially forcing them into
indentured servitude. They are coaxed into these bad deals by desperate
financial situations at home and promises of a salary higher than they could
ever earn otherwise, but trapped by exuberant interest accruing on the loans
that covered their visa fees and international travel. They often return home
at the end of their contract with little savings to show for their years of
work. A common method of preventing people in these situations from escaping is
to hold the workers’ passports somewhere that they can’t go, so that they are
unable to leave the country where they’re working until the terms of their
contracts are complete. The fact that there are Nepali workers in this
situation here came up in a conversation I had the other day with an HR
manager, who explained to me that this can’t be held against the resort since
they are technically not employed by the resort, but by their third-party
agency. Very convincing. I had a chat later with some of the Nepalis, and they
told me that their passports are in the capitol island of Male, far away from
here, that some of them would quit and go home straight away if they had the
chance.
Another manifestation of exploitative labor present here is
the many “casual” (read: without the protection of an employment contract)
workers, largely from Bangladesh, who are not provided work visas by the resort
and, therefore, are working and residing illegally. They sleep in dismal
16-person dorms which are little more than shacks in their construction, and they’re
not allowed to eat with the other staff. They can never go home, out of fear
that they will be barred re-entry into this country and lose a precious work
opportunity that isn’t available in their own. The resort’s obvious response to
any criticism about this is that if they don’t like it they’re free to go
whenever they please, since they aren’t contracted.
Beyond these looming problems, which I have witnessed, are
the rumors from other staff, such as Jewish guests having been served non-kosher
food with kosher labels, hiding evidence that they purchase meats from slaughterhouses
that don’t meet their advertised ethical standards, and selling resort
properties to more than one owner since they’ll probably never be here at the
same time.
The clientele here are truly the global elite, well-known
Hollywood actors, world-famous musicians, London real-estate tycoons, CEOs of
major corporations – the type of people who would probably be terribly embarrassed
to associate with a resort using such labor practices. Or maybe they just wouldn’t
care. The resort isn’t solely accountable for these issues, as these workers
are provoked into coming here by the lack of opportunities in their own
countries, as the exploitation of poor workers is certainly not limited to the
hospitality industry, and as the Maldivian government must know that this is
happening since their country is half occupied by such resorts employing
foreign labor but does nothing about it. However, with an average per-night
charge of around $6000 (seriously), food not included, this resort undoubtedly
has the means to uphold their self-mandated ethical standards by employing
people in better situations, and I can’t help but conclude that they choose to
participate in these practices purely out of greed. This is enough to keep me
from returning next year and, someday, may be their downfall if someone like me
comes along who is in a position to openly expose them.
