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· 40 out of 81 UK trekking tour operators contacted by Tourism Concern now have porter protection policies.
· ITV Survivor’s £1 million prize winner, Jonny Gibb shocked to see porters die of cold with only flip flops for protection, backs Tourism Concern campaign
· Trekkers encouraged to choose trekking operators committed to protecting porters
· Mountaineers Doug Scott and Dr. Jim Duff encouraged by campaign
Tourism Concern’s campaign Trekking Wrongs:Porters’ Rights has triggered a dramatic increase in the number of UK ‘porter-friendly’ trek operators.
The campaign has prompted action amongst British trekking operators to protect porters used by their trips. Tourism Concern has worked specifically with operators taking treks to the Himalayas, Macchu Pichu in Peru and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Porters in mountain regions frequently earn as little as £2 a day, carrying loads of up to 60 kg of trekking equipment, without boots or jackets and are often left to sleep outside. This is devastating when treks go up beyond the tree line into sub-zero temperatures.
Porters are four times more likely to fall ill or die on trips as trekkers from hypothermia, dehydration or altitude sickness. After such hard working days, porters often don’t even receive sufficient food, sometimes even being denied the left-overs from trekkers’ meals, particularly on Macchu Pichu or Kilimanjaro.
In the most extreme cases, porters believe they are simply seen as “beasts of burden”. In the words of a Peruvian porters’ syndicate: "We suffer humiliation upon humiliation, and are treated as less than human... If we protest, we simply won’t be re-contracted: we don’t have any other employment options."
A tour operator in Pakistan is even more direct: the way porters are treated, he says, “amounts to modern slavery.”
As a result of Tourism Concern’s work, 40 of the 81 tour operators contacted by Tourism Concern last year now have policies to provide essential protection, fair pay and humane working conditions.
Tourism Concern’s message is ‘Do go trekking – it is a vital income for trekking communities. But now please go with an operator who has committed to protecting its porters.’
Scottish ex-police officer Jonny Gibb, who won the £1m Survivor prize in May this year – was shocked to see three porters die on his celebratory trek – and welcomes Tourism Concern’s campaign.
“After I won Survivor I left my job and decided to treat myself to a trek up Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain,” says Jonny, who was accompanied by fellow Survivor contestant John Dalzell.
“We assumed the cost of the trip included looking after porters and were horrified this didn’t happen. I saw porters carrying our luggage wearing just flip flops or thin golf shoes, it was freezing cold. Three of them died of cold on one night after having to sleep out in very bad weather conditions and their bodies were put in a tent, we were really shocked. I was keen to go on the trip, but I wasn’t desperate enough for people to die.” (See Example notes for more information)
In November last year, Tourism Concern contacted UK trekking and climbing operators that visit either the Himalayas, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania or Macchu Picchu in Peru, to find out what policies on porters they had in place. Tourism Concern was shocked to discover only a few operators with well-defined policies.
Most said that they left responsibility for porters to the companies in the destination country and did not know what would be done if porters were injured or fell ill. Few set guidelines on the weights of loads porters carried, wages or protective clothing and footwear.
Suggested guidelines on porters working conditions were then drawn up by tour operators, porters’ groups and Tourism Concern (see notes to editors).
That so many tour operators have come on board to make such important changes is extremely encouraging, says Tourism Concern’s director, Patricia Barnett (see notes to editors for list of companies). “This is great news, a move forward for the tourism industry. We are glad that operators recognise that providing basic protection is crucial,” says Patricia Barnett.
The campaign is also receiving a lot of public support, she says. “No-one wants to see people die during a holiday. Trekkers often assume porters are superhuman and can take these tough conditions. It’s a myth, no-one can sleep out in sub zero temperatures without proper protection. The fact that these operators now have policies to protect the porters will make it easier for trekkers to make an ethical decision about who to go with.”
Doug Scott, one of the UK’s leading mountaineers who also runs a tour operator business and is founder of Community Action Nepal, says: “Anyone who goes trekking or mountaineering knows that the exploitation of porters is a problem that desperately needs to be addressed. It’s incredible that so few tour operators took this seriously before Tourism Concern’s campaign. This campaign is a great success story.”
Dr Jim Duff, mountaineer and founder of the International Porter Protection Group (IPPG), has just returned from a trek across Cho La in the Everest region, says: ”We are pleased to say operators and travel agents are now far more aware of the terrible conditions the porters were experiencing. We hope that trek leaders will now take responsibility for the porters and see they get what they need and that trekkers will be the eyes and ears of the campaign. There does seem to be a sea change in the way porters are being treated.”
Background notes follow
Examples of the problem and progress:
· Himalayas: Kul Bahadur Rai’s story: Nepalese porter Kul Bahadur Rai was hit by altitude sickness while carrying a heavy load for tourists. Rapid descent is the effective and simple cure for altitude sickness. But an unsympathetic trek sirdar (trek foreman) made Kul Bahadur go on, then left him to descend alone. Kul Bahadur slipped into a coma and woke in hospital to find that his frostbitten feet had to be partially amputated (see http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/campaigns/porters_asia_tanzania_peru.htm for more details and http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/campaigns/porters_photographs.htm for pictures).
Early this year a porter in Nepal was found unconscious by the side of a trail. He had been forced to carry his load until he was unable to go any further, then left with no money to make his way down the mountain alone.
PROGRESS: The International Porter Protection Group (IPPG)
www.ippg.net and the Himalayan Explorers Connection (HEC)
www.hec.org have improved conditions for porters significantly
through having Porter Clothing Banks, providing safety education and building
shelters. IPPG are starting a porter rescue post in the notorious Gokyo ‘death’
valley in April 2003 – which will also help trekkers in distress. Nepali porters
are now beginning to be rescued by helicopter. Some trekking companies are
beginning to put their porters in tents and have their food cooked by the
trekkers’ kitchen staff. An HEC member is providing scholarships for Kul Bahadur
Rai’s children’s education.
· Pakistan has no such porter support. As Agha Igrar Haroon, President of the Ecotourism Society of Pakistan explains: “Porters are poor people and the majority work without proper insurance and without proper clothing. They get next to nothing if they are injured or disabled while working, and they receive no proper training. Foreign tour operators can play a great role in protecting porters’ rights. They should ask the ground agents about the facilities they provide to porters before giving them business, and not just give business to the cheapest ground agent. Tour operators shouldn’t try and keep costs down at the expense of basic human rights.”
· Kilimanjaro, Tanzania: Tourism Concern has received reports of sick porters being abandoned by tour operators, of porters frequently working without shoes or proper equipment, and of guides bribing the rangers who weigh the porters’ loads, so that porters end up carrying huge weights. Guides choose porters on the basis of payments and bribes and threaten those who refuse to pay with no more work. Kilimanjaro National Park has described Tourism Concern’s campaign as “a justifiable and achievable cause.”
Three porters died on September 17th this year. One died working in cold, driving rain dressed only in trousers and a T-shirt and after sleeping out all night as the porters’ accommodation was full. Two others froze to death overnight.
PROGRESS: A new porters’ association and has been created, the Kilimanjaro Porters Association, which “has reinforced guides discipline as well as operators’ discipline, as they are no longer able to bulldoze porters and have now to threat them fairly well.” HEC (see Himalayas) is opening an office in Kilimanjaro to address the needs of mountain porters, including clothing, shelter and education.
· Macchu Pichu, Peru: Official guidelines for trekking the Inca Trail have been established, including ensuring a maximum weight of 20kg for packs porters carry. Packs are weighed by government officials before treks. Porters went on strike however, last September demanding regulation on porters’ wages and a minimum wage of US$30 per four day trek. This May, 1000 members of the Inca Trail porters’ union marched to protest that the minimum wage was not being paid. They presented a letter to relevant authorities asking for the good example of one operator to be replicated which provides appropriate clothing, the same food as tourists (rather than leftovers), respects the maximum legal weight limit of 20kg, and “treats their porters like real human beings.”
· (see http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/campaigns/porters_asia_tanzania_peru.htm for more details).
INTERVIEWS can be arranged with Tourism Concern, Survivor contestants, Doug Scott, Jim Duff or tour operators. Contact Patricia Barnett on 020 7753 3330 or Beverley Cohen on 020 8444 2725.
FOR PHOTOGRAPHS OF PORTERS IN GOOD AND BAD CONDITIONS: click here http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/campaigns/porters_photographs.htm