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July 27, 2017

Migrant workers continue to face major obstacles to lodging and resolving complaints, the ILO finds in a new study on Access to justice for migrant workers in South-East Asia. 
Released for the World Day against Trafficking in Persons on 30 July, the report underlines the important link between the lack of effective channels for migrants to denounce abuses and cases of forced labour and human trafficking.

“Migrant workers’ vulnerability to exploitation is exacerbated by the absence of fair, efficient and accessible means to resolve grievances when they occur”, says Ben Harkins, Technical Officer for the ILO TRIANGLE in ASEAN programme  and lead author of the report.

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The study is based on complaint case data gathered by Migrant Worker Resource Centres (MRCs) from 2011 to 2015. Detailed information on over 1,000 cases involving more than 7,000 women and men migrant workers was documented in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam, establishing the largest regional dataset of migrant complaints compiled within South-East Asia.

The results show that some progress has been achieved in increasing access to justice for migrant workers in recent years. Remedies awarded to migrants in the cases resolved by MRCs included US$1.62 million in compensation.

Providing migrant workers with fair access to justice in South-East Asia is a key gap remaining in protecting them from exploitation and abuse. Because of the obstacles that they face to obtaining assistance through official mechanisms, migrants are often highly dependent on informal support, even when the abuses they endure are severe in nature. As a result, the data collected on migrant worker complaints within the region has been very limited to date. This report helps to fill the knowledge gap by analysing data on complainants assisted by Migrant Worker Resource Centres from 2011 to 2015. Over 1,000 cases involving more than 7,000 women and men migrant workers were documented across five countries, establishing the largest regional dataset of migrant worker complaints compiled within South-East Asia. The analysis reveals that progress has been achieved in facilitating access to justice for migrants but that major challenges remain in providing them with fair and responsive remedies.

Source: ilo.org

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