Strengthening labour rights to prevent human trafficking and unsafe migration

Written on 01 May 2019.

Outcome of the Global Consultation on Prevention of Human Trafficking and Unsafe Migration

1 May 2019

Women from BOMSA, a GAATW member organisation in Bangladesh, at a 2014 May Day Rally in Dhaka.

Forty-five representatives of 35 women’s rights, migrant rights, and anti-trafficking organisations from 28 countries met on 3-5 April 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand, to discuss the successes and failures of current initiatives to prevent human trafficking and unsafe migration.

We reaffirmed that human trafficking and other rights violations in the context of migration for work are the result of a number of structural root causes. These include economic injustice brought about by neoliberal economic policies of privatisation, de-regulation and austerity, which intersect with patriarchy and racism to devalue and informalise women’s work, particular that of migrant and racialised women.

To successfully prevent human trafficking and related rights violations, states need to address these root causes in line with their commitments under the human rights framework and the Sustainable Development Goals. Civil society needs to advocate for structural changes to systems of domination based on race, gender, and class, and hold governments accountable for their failure to protect the human rights of all people. Current initiatives to prevent trafficking through engagement with the private sector and reduction of the demand for trafficking, awareness-raising and campaigning, and provision of information to (potential) migrants, fall short of these goals and fail to address the asymmetrical power relationships between workers and employers. 

We acknowledged that some form of engagement of the private sector could add value to the goal of reduction of exploitaion and trafficking. However, the drive to promote corporate social responsibility, self-audits, and reporting on measures taken to ensure lack of exploitation in supply chains, imagines a reality in which capital self-regulates, so that states don’t have to. This absolves states of responsibility and takes power away from collective groups of workers, and shifts the focus away from the structure of production to the responsibility of individual employers and businesses. Such initiatives do not question the dominant economic model that relies on the exploitation of low-wage, (migrant) labour; on the contrary, they practically endorse it. Any private sector solution must be developed in meaningful consultation with workers.

“End-demand” measures to prevent trafficking in the sex industry through the criminalisation of the purchase of sex end up harming sex workers while doing very little to reduce either sex work, or trafficking. Measures to end demand for trafficked and exploited labour – in the sex and other sectors – need to focus on reducing social attitudes that normalise the abuse, mistreatment and exploitation of migrants and women, and strengthening the bargaining power of workers.

We noted that the general public’s awareness of human trafficking is low and there is a need to raise awareness, so that people can protect themselves and refer (potential) trafficked and exploited persons to support services. At the same time, we also noted that awareness-raising campaigns are often based on assumptions and not research and evidence. Anti-trafficking campaigners need to constantly and seriously question their assumptions to ensure they are raising awarenss of the right issue and the right target group. The awareness-raisers need to raise their own awareness first. We need to ensure that prevention activities are based on what migrants and at-risk groups actually need and not what we think they need. These activities should involve the meaningful participation of the people they are meant to benefit and allow them to speak out their own concerns.

We agreed that it is necessary to approach (potential) migrants in origin and destination countries, and provide them with information about migration and labour laws, decent working conditions, their rights, and where to seek help in case of rights violations. Information is power and reduce the risks of trafficking. However, our collective experience also shows that even people who migrate with all the necessary information, through regular channels, to work in regulated labour sectors, can be subjected to violence, harasment, and exploitation. Migrants’ ability to act on the information they have can be severely constrained by their gender, race, caste, class, debt and nationality, as well as regulatory systems and prevailing economic structures. Furthermore, workers can be subjected to exploitation in their own village, city, country, or even home, in the case of home-based workers.

Ultimately, trafficking and exploitation occur as a result of the power imbalance between the worker and the employer. This holds true for migrants and nationals, as well as workers in the formal and informal economy. Given the widespread undervaluation of women’s work in general, women’s exploitation in certain “feminised” sectors is practically normalised.

Given the above, we concluded that governments in both origin and destination countries need to strengthen labour rights and improve labour protections as a way to prevent trafficking, exploitation, and other rights violations in the context of work. This includes recognition of and labour protections in unregulated sectors, such as domestic and sex work, and for freelance and home-based workers. It also means eliminating recruitment fees, abolishing restrictive labour migration policies, such as tied visas, allowing migrant workers to change employers, and all workers, especially migrants and those in the informal sectors, to organise and join unions. Finally, it means strengthening labour inspection systems, so that working conditions can be effectively monitored and abuses reported, placing labour rights of both regular and irregular migrant workers above administrative offences.

Representatives of the following organisations attended the Consultation: Asia: Srijan Foundation/Jharkhand Anti-Trafficking Network, India; Association for Community Development, Bangladesh; Migrant-rights.org, Qatar; Leval Support for Children and Women, Cambodia; Alliance Against Trafficking in Women and Children in Nepal, Nepal; Foundation for Women, Thailand; Legal Resources Centre (LRC-JKHAM), Indonesia; Yasanti, Indonesia; Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), Singapore; Anti-Racism Movement, Lebanon; AMEL Foundation, Lebanon; Africa: Platform for Labour Action, Uganda; Organization for prevention, rehabilitation and integration of female street children (OPRIFS), Ethiopia; Europe: La Strada, Czech Republic; Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), UK; CoMensha, the Netherlands; FairWork, the Netherlands; Open Gate/La Strada, North Macedonia; Ban Ying, Germany; Pro Tukipiste, Finland; Victim Support Finland, Finland; La Strada, Ukraine; Novi Put, Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Americas: Brigada Callejera de Apoyo a la Mujer, “Elisa Martínez”, A.C., Mexico; Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, AC (IMUMI); Associacao de defesa da mulher, da infancia e da juventude (ASBRAD), Brazil; Safe Horizon, USA; Freedom Network USA; International Labour Rights Forum, USA; Supporting Women’s Alternatives Network (SWAN), Canada; Corporación Espacios de Mujer, Colombia; Sindicato de trabajadoras domesticas (SINTRASEDOM), Colombia; Asociación civil de DDHH mujeres unidas migrantes y refugiadas en Argentina (AMUMRA), Argentina; Capital Humano y Social (CHS) Alternativo, Peru.