Public services and social protections key to migrant women’s rights
Statement by the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women on the occasion of International Women’s Day and ahead of the 63rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women
The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women calls on states to increase their investment in public services and social protections as a way to prevent human trafficking and protect the rights of migrant and trafficked women.
Migrant and trafficked women cite the absence of social protection systems as key in their decisions to migrate, regardless of the risk. This distress migration enables a supply of workers in precarious labour sectors, such as the domestic and garment work, which do not enjoy basic protections and increases the risks of trafficking and exploitation.
In destination countries, migrant workers, particularly women domestic and care workers, are often employed to fill gaps in social protection and services, where economic pressures and austerity measures have increased the unpaid care burden on women. In some countries, migrant workers have been recruited to meet longstanding recruitment problems, and make up large sectors of the workforce particularly in health and education.
In origin countries, women migrant workers play a crucial role in compensating for the underfunding or absence of public services. Their remittances are used to clothe, feed, house and educate their families.
Despite playing an outsized, and trans-boundary role in social protection, migrant women are also among the groups least able to access services and social protection. Access to public services and social protection systems are key to the fulfilment of the rights of migrant women, and to preventing trafficking but progress is threatened by budget cuts and austerity measures that have resulted in the privatisation of public services and increased user fees.
Austerity measures, including the underfunding of public services, have a detrimental impact on the ability to prevent, detect and respond to cases of trafficking. Given their role in victim identification, it is critical that public service providers, including labour inspection, law enforcement, immigration, health and social service providers have resources to identify and assist potential trafficked persons.
Irregular migrants, refugees or trafficked persons? Challenging rigid categorisations and their impact on migrants’ lives
8 December 2018, 15:30 – 17:30, Room Atlas 2, Palmeraie Golf Palace, Marrakech
Organisers: Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, OHCHR and UNHCR
This event will present the findings of the articles published in the above-mentioned journal and contribute to a conversation about the categories assigned by states to people on the move, the impact of these categories on migrants’ lives, and how the global compacts for refugees and for migration can support efforts to protect the rights of all people on the move.
Categorising Migrants: Standards, complexities, and politics
Launch of Issue 11 of Anti-Trafficking Review ‘Irregular Migrants, Refugees or Trafficked Persons?’
Guest Editors: Claus K. Meyer and Sebastian Boll
Editor: Borislav Gerasimov
International migration has become a ‘mega trend’ of our times, with more than 260 million migrants living outside their country of origin in 2017. Some people move in search of better livelihood opportunities, others flee conflict, environmental degradation or natural disasters, and yet others are deceived or coerced into exploitative work. At the same time, the categories developed by the international community for people on the move—such as smuggled migrants, refugees, or trafficked persons—are increasingly inadequate to capture today’s complex migration flows. Yet the label that a person is given by authorities can mean the difference between assistance and protection, or arrest and deportation.
Letter to the Indian government regarding Anti-Trafficking Bill
Ms. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India
Shastri Bhavan
New Delhi -110001
Chetan B. Sanghi, IAS
Joint Secretary
Ministry of Women and Child Development
Government of India
29 July 2018
Letter to the Indian government concerning the draft Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018
Ms. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India
Shastri Bhavan
New Delhi -110001
Chetan B. Sanghi, IAS
Joint Secretary
Ministry of Women and Child Development
Government of India
13 July 2018
Life after trafficking – an often neglected aspect of anti-trafficking policy
Most media stories, politicians’ speeches and NGO campaigns typically focus on the horrors of life in trafficking and dramatic rescues and escapes. The only thing we usually hear about what happens next is something like “she was reunited with her family and loved ones” or “now he is helping others like him”.
But after trafficking, most trafficked persons don’t simply go on to live happily ever after. They have different needs, and have to go through a number of bureaucratic hurdles to access support and be able to move on. These include identification, short and long-term assistance, residence permits, compensation and family reunification.
And all of this occurs in a context where countries of destination, in particular, are hostile towards migrants and reluctant to provide assistance to foreigners, including victims of trafficking.
These were some of the concerns that prompted us to focus the latest issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review on “life after trafficking”.
The papers in this issue cover a wide range of countries that are considered both origin and destination: Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Nigeria, United Kingdom and United States. Below are some of the main issues highlighted in the articles.
Moving Forward – Life after trafficking
Launch of Issue 10 of the Anti-Trafficking Review ‘Life after Trafficking’
Guest Editors: Denise Brennan and Sine Plambech
Editor: Borislav Gerasimov
Media, policymakers and NGOs typically focus on the horrors of life in trafficking and ‘rescuing’ trafficked persons, but much less attention is paid to life after trafficking. This special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review documents the challenges that people face after exiting situations labelled as trafficking, as well as those whose exploitation garnered no legal protections or service provision.
Statement on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work
Outcome of the Knowledge-sharing Forum on Women, Work and Migration, Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 2018
1 May 2018
If current trends continue, by the year 2030, two-thirds of all global wealth will be owned by the richest one percent of people.[1] This statistic is no accident. It is the outcome of economic and social systems that engage in structural violence to reproduce massive inequality.
As workers, worker organisations, feminist, women’s and migrant rights organisations, academics and journalists, from South, Southeast and West Asia, who met in Colombo in April 2018, we welcome the current initiative to address the root causes and consequences of violence and harassment in the world of work through a binding ILO Convention and Recommendation.