The treatment meted out to Pakistani workers working in Saudi Arabia is no secret but with our government being too dependent upon financial handouts from Gulf hardly anyone seems the worker’s plight.
Finally a local Saudi band has decided to take matters into their own hands and released a video of their rap song which highlights the exploitation of Pakistani Labourers in Saudia Arabia and Gulf Countries.
To everybody’s surprise this song and its video owes its success not to the lyrics or the song but to the conditions of immigrant workers highlighted in the song.
The rap song, which is band’s own rendition of famous rap by OT Genasis’ ‘CoCo,’ shows the struggle that Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi migrants workers have to go through in their everyday lives and why the Arabs need to see that they owe their success not just to their petro dollars but also these immigrant workers who work 24/7 to ensure Gulf’s development.
Models in this song have been dressed up in the dresses normally worn by immigrant workers in their everyday lives in Gulf.
Unlike the rest of the world, Gulf Arabs don’t grant immigration visas but the migrant worker has to look for a sponsor. It is the sponsors who has to do all the administrative work including paperwork, visa and accommodation for what should rightfully be a ‘guest worker’.
However mostly these sponsors have found to be exploiting the plight of these immigrant worker. As for the good old UN, it seems powerless against the petro monarchies of Gulf.
This video starts off with a shot of a migrant worker watching television and reading a newspaper when he is interrupted by his sponsor and questioned over why he is watching television.
“Oh sure, we brought you from Pakistan so you could read the newspaper and watch TV,” says an actor portraying a sponsor in the video before the song actually kicks off.
Here are the translated lyrics in the caption:
Everyone should listen up.
I carry everything on my back.
I do my sponsor’s work.
If I go, you’ll die.
I’m not afraid of my sponsor.
Carry the air conditioner. Install the air conditioner.
Install everything in the house!
The Saudis keep making me more of a slave
Think I’m afraid? Everything you do I see.
I’m not afraid of my sponsor.
I carry everything on my back.
I do my sponsor’s work.
Saudis talk a lot. All Saudis wanna act like bosses. Leave your sponsor!
Do you work well? If not, bye bye!
Who does everything in Saudi? Who built the infrastructure? Whose work is the best?
They say Bengalis are thieves. Watch yourself, you’re not perfect.
Who made the intersections? Who made the sewage system?
Who carries the trash? Who works at the convenience store?
All Saudis forget who drives the taxis.
Every day I carry the bags. Every day I do the washing.
Me and him, we might get deported. I’m not afraid of my sponsor.
I’m not afraid of my sponsor.
I carry everything on my back.
I do all my sponsor’s work.
Here’s the video for this song and one can only hope that this will highlight the need for Pakistanis to build up a strong domestic economy, one where we no longer need to beg for jobs abroad!
