February 20, 2013
Report on the protection of the human rights of all migrants, with particular reference to women and children.
Organization: IOM, DESA and UNFPA
by Erica Higbie, FAWCO UN NGO Representative in New York
Program:
“Measures to ensure respect for and protection of the human rights of all migrants,
with particular reference to women and children, as well as to prevent and combat smuggling of
migrants and trafficking in persons, and to ensure regular, orderly, and safe migration.”
Speakers:
Anne C Richard, Assist Sec of State, Population Refugees and Migration USA
Ambassador Luis Alfonso De Alba, Permanent Mission of Mexico
Francois Crepeau, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants
Christian Salazar, Deputy Director, Program Division, UNICEF
Nisha Varia, Senior Researcher, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch
Craig Mokhiber, Chief Development and Economic and Social Issues Branch OHCHR
Martin Fowke, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, Human Trafficking and Migrant
Smuggling Section, UNODC
Andrea Romero, Projects Director, Fundacion Maria de Los Angeles
Special status should be granted to trafficking victims so that they have top priority and access to services and protection. They have not committed a crime.
‘Illegal migrants’ as a term should not be used as it reinforces negative stereotypes of migrants, which contributes to discrimination and ill-treatment. We should avoid language that undermines a human rights approach.
All migrants are protected by international human rights law. Affirmed by a recent General Assembly Resolution, non-discrimination and equality of treatment must be assured for all migrants and international refugees. The ILO has numerous instruments and conventions to protect migrant workers but despite these frameworks many gaps remain.
The right to health must be guaranteed for migrants. The right to accommodation, protection under the law, and education must also be guaranteed. There is no single UN agency that ensures these because the issues are too broad for one department so coordination has to take place within the existing framework.
Why do migrants continue to suffer abuse?
• Lack of understanding, which leads to xenophobia and hate crimes
• Migrants try to remain invisible so they do not stand up for themselves
• Lack of electoral incentive
Key components to good treatment policies:
1) Decriminalization
2) Move away from detention – it is inefficient
3) Assure awareness raising and specific training for professionals dealing with migrants
4) Ensure the protection of human rights of children at every stage of the immigration process,
including access to education and healthcare
5) Ensuring the victims can rebuild
6) Fight trafficking and smuggling rings but not by detaining victims indefinitely
7) Political social and economic rights for all migrants including irregular migrants
8) Recourse to legal institutions such as legal courts labor and immigration matters
9) States should recognize that migration is the normal state of human kind
10) Pull factors need to be recognized: underground employment needs to be officially
recognized because it exists.
According to a recent MacKenzie Report, there will be a global shortage of 85 million skilled
workers by 2020. More needs to be done to educate the public about the positive impact of
immigration. It will be increasing and there will be a backlash if we do not.
Illegal and corrupt recruitment agencies will be a target in the future. So will the training of border
officials to ensure that persons being trafficked are picked up.
Migrants have to be empowered. Nothing has ever been more successful than empowering the
disadvantaged and vulnerable to speak for themselves and create their own solutions.
The human rights and protection needs of all children in the context of migration
(Christian Salazar, UNICEF)
- Migrant Children are entitled to non-discriminatory, holistic view of children’s human rights.
- The mental health of the child must be taken into account; they must have a legal guardian and children should not be detained.
- Family separation should be avoided, although this cannot be used as justification for detaining children.
- Measures must be taken to ensure no abuse (physical and sexual).
- There are 6 million migrants age 4 years or under.
- Girls are especially vulnerable to sexual exploitation during migration.
- Financial resources should be increased to protect these migrant children. Best practices need to be disseminated.
The human rights of migrant women
(Nisha Varia, Human Rights Watch)
- Many female migrant domestic workers come from Asia, making up 50-70% of the migrants in many countries. There are 60,000 in Kuwait.
- Women are compelled to try their luck abroad when the situation at home is unsustainable. They are often recruited, lied to about the experience abroad, and hopelessly in debt to their handlers.
- Labor laws in the destination countries do not apply to them because migrant workers are excluded from the legal systems.
- Domestic workers are isolated in homes, often not paid wages, have long working hours – all of these things make the vulnerable to severe exploitation and physical and sexual abuse.
- We need stronger labor laws at a national level that include migrant workers. The ILO Convention on domestic work is a great framework for countries to follow.
Compliance of migration policies, legislation and measures with human rights standards
(Craig Mokhiber, OHCHR)
- There has been a paradigm shift away from the commodification of migrants to a human rights focus.
- Economic necessity as the driving force of migration is evident.
- Discrimination against migrants has been resurgent in many regions.
- Violence and xenophobia create a downward spiral in which fear makes migrants afraid to stand up for themselves, which emboldens those to hate speech and violence.
- The criminalization of migrants is a continuing trend that goes against human rights law, which does not allow for discrimination or detention.
- Borders are often human rights/legal vacuums – where safeguards do not apply.
- 214 billion migrants should be protected. ‘Repect for human rights does not require a visa.’
Counter-trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants protocols
(Martin Fowke, UNODC)
- Smuggling and trafficking are distinct crimes.
- International instruments to address these have only been in place for a decade. They have been ratified by a high number of states but most are having difficulty implementing
- them.
- 34% of countries cannot identify a conviction for trafficking between 2007 and 2010.
- Partnership, prevention, prosecution and protection are part of the UN Protocols.
- International frameworks for action for trafficking in person and migrant smuggling have been developed by UNODC should be used as tools.
- ICAT is a group that is trying to coordinate the activities going on to stop trafficking in persons.
(Laurence Hart, IOM)
Protection – Irregular migrants are abused, trafficked, and exploited, but they do and will keep coming. They receive minimal if any protection. Labor law is a place to start. Enforcing existing laws in areas where migrants work would make a difference.
Prevention – Efforts to prevent trafficking have been based on poverty as a root cause. This is misguided; it makes people vulnerable but it is not a root cause. This misconception has been a distraction away from focusing on demand as a root cause. Addressing demand would prevent trafficking from occurring in the first place. Curtail the demand for the services of trafficked persons. The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act was enacted last year – this would be a template for others.
Advocacy and assisting victims of trafficking
(Andrea Romero, Fundacion Maria de Los Angeles)
- In brothels in Argentina, prostitution is legal so it is very difficult to tell which of the prostitutes are there by choice and which a victims of trafficking.
- We must look at costs for prevention and prosecution and the implication for implementation. It may not just be a lack of political will, it may be a lack of money in many countries.
- Sweden and Switzerland are doing very technical work on the issues of trafficking in persons. These efforts are, among other things, helping us to ask better questions.
- The smuggling market is created by tight immigration policies. Thinking beyond restrictive policies around immigration, even for unskilled workers, would undercut the smuggling industry completely.
