Violence against women migrant workers in the form of trafficking, forced labour, unjust imprisonment, torture, and other forms of physical, psychological or sexual abuse, is escalating within the Asia Pacific Region.

So far this year alone there have been reports within APWLD’s network of: the death of Cathy Baustista, Louella Montenegro, and Luz Pacuran - three Filipina domestic workers in Lebanon who attempted to flee their abusive and exploitative employers; the gang-rape by three policemen of Monera Ungka - a Filipina migrant domestic worker in Kuwait who attempted to report her situation of abuse; the sexual assault and repeated acid burning of Mylene Mandas – a Sri Lankan domestic worker in Saudi Arabia who attempted to defend herself from her employer’s outrage; and the beating and burning with an iron of Nirmala Bonat, an Indonesian migrant worker in Malaysia who attempted to fight for her rights.

These cases brought to the attention of APWLD by migrant groups in the Asia Pacific, do not exist in isolation, they are representative of thousands of other cases violence and abuse taking place on a daily basis within the Region. Cases in which women migrant workers continue to be denied access to justice and any form of adequate redress.

December 18 (the day on which the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was adopted by the UN) was designated by the UN General Assembly in 2000, as a day for reflection on the struggles of all migrant workers, a day to share and disseminate information on their current situations, and a day for states to make commitments to future efforts to ensure respect for migrant workers human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Despite the entrance into force of the Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families in July 2003, and despite the recognition of the specific rights of migrants in various International Treaties and Conventions such as ILO Migration for Employment Convention and ILO Migrant Workers Convention, governments in the Asia-Pacific Region continue to be negligent in adopting national legal measures, or multi-lateral and bi-lateral agreements that give full protection the rights of migrants and which address ongoing situations of exploitation, violence and abuse.

Recently, the UN Special Rapporteur on Migrants recognized that the existing “labour exploitation of migrants is analogous to slavery.” In her report to the UN Commission on Human Rights in April 2004, she remarked that “worldwide, millions of migrants have provided information on acts of violence and ill-treatment.” Similarly, in her report to the UN General Assembly in October of this year, she stated that there has been a “continuous deterioration in the human rights of migrants.” She called for state sharing of responsibility for accepting and dealing with migrants, “rather than treating the issue as one of internal security or specific economic interests.” She emphasized that the “regularization of the status of migrants must be carried out with absolute respect for the human rights of those concerned so they cannot be blackmailed if regularization is left to the employer.”

Today, there are over 86 million migrant workers worldwide; about half of these are women. In the Asia Pacific alone there are more than 25 million women migrants workers and these numbers are on the rise. In the wake of globalization, the trend within the Region has been towards state adoption of policies of trade liberalization, privatization and deregulation. This has created an environment in which the trade of women migrant workers is more often being used by governments as a solution to address other failed attempts to rectify long term problems of unemployment and unstable national economies. At the same time, while receiving countries continue to benefit from women migrant workers as a source of “cheap and flexible labour”, governments in the Region are moving towards increasingly restrictive immigration and labour policies as part of “national security measures”. Consequently, migrant workers in the Asia Pacific are confronted with an increase in migration policies and agreements within and between states which are anti-migrant in their orientation, and which further constrain their ability to assert their rights to fair, equitable and decent work.

Within this context, thousands of women migrant workers continue to leave their home countries every year in search of overseas employment in order to sustain their families and communities. Many are forced to relocate as a consequence of a lack of work, and as a result of increasing poverty, internal conflict, and reduced access to services in their countries of origin. The failure of governments in the Region to provide equal work opportunities for women has further contributed to the feminization of poverty and has in turn led to the feminization of migration.

Women migrant workers from the Asia Pacific Region constitute the largest number of “unskilled” workers in receiving countries. They are employed primarily as domestic workers, as sex workers and in factories. Their work goes largely unrecognized and they are more likely to face barriers in hiring, wages and other benefits than their male counterparts. These women are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse in various forms because of the conditions of their work, their relative isolation and temporary status, and their inability to access mechanisms for defending their rights.

On this December 18, 2004, International Migrants Day, APWLD expresses solidarity with migrant workers across the Region in their struggles to secure recognition of and respect for their work and their rights. It joins with migrant workers and groups advocating on their behalf to demand that governments across the Region end the exploitation, violence and abuse towards these workers. It calls on all Governments in the Region to:

Ratify all international treaties and conventions which aim to protect the rights of migrants and their families;

Review all existing anti-migrant policies, practices and procedures and develop new bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements on labour based on internationally accepted norms and principles of human rights;

Address the roots of exploitation and violence towards women migrant workers such as poverty, lack of equal opportunity and discrimination in employment and access to legal remedies;

Implement mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators of violence against migrant workers which occurs inside and outside the workplace, and provide victims with full redress;

Give complete and non-discriminatory employment rights to all migrant workers which recognize their contributions and respect their entitlement to work free from fear of all forms of violence and abuse.

December 18, 2004
Labour and Migration Task Force
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)

For more information contact:

Julie Kon Kam King
Program Officer – Labour and Migration
julie@apwld.org