Statement on UK's new Illegal Migration Bill

Written on 24 May 2023.

We write this statement as an alliance of anti-trafficking experts and service providers from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and North America. We wish to express our deep concern over the proposals contained within the UK’s Illegal Migration Bill 2023. If enacted, this Bill will have grave consequences for our ability to work together across borders and combat human trafficking.

For decades, the UK has been a key ally in the fight against human trafficking. The proposals contained in this Bill risk undermining all the progress that has been made to date.

We are deeply concerned by the provisions of this Bill that remove all protections for victims of trafficking and asylum seekers who entered the UK without a visa, or with a visa that was obtained by the deception of their trafficker. These victims will be denied access to the Uk’s identification system, the national referral mechanism (NRM) and will face detention and deportation. This applies even to victims who entered the UK against their will.

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COMPLAINT TO THE ASEAN INTER-GOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Written on 11 May 2023.

RE: THE TRAFFICKING OF PEOPLE FOR THE PURPOSE OF FORCED LABOUR IN ONLINE

CRIMINAL ACTIVITY

8 February 2023

A.     Introduction

1. This complaint is made by the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women (in consultative status with AICHR since 2018), Tenaganita Malaysia, and Migrant Care Indonesia, and is directed at Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Viet Nam.

B.      Statement of facts

2. Since 2019, thousands of workers from the ASEAN region have been trafficked by organised criminal groups for the purpose of their forced labour in online criminal activity. Responding to advertisements offering jobs working online, a vast number of people have been tricked into traveling to Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and the Philippines.1 There have also been reports of at least one victim being tricked into travelling to Singapore, before being transported onwards to Thailand and Myanmar.2

On arrival at borders and airports, victims are typically met by several men who drive them to deserted hotels, casinos and other large buildings, which have been installed with metal window bars and barbed wire.3 Victims’ passports are taken from them immediately upon arrival and they are told that they are not permitted to leave the building’s compound under any circumstances. According to survivors, the victims are watched by security guards throughout the fenced-off compounds, some of them carry guns. Some victims have also been forced to sign a contract which would require them to pay a ransom to terminate the contract. In Malaysia it has been reported that this ransom can be up to RM80,000.00 per person (about 19,000 USD).

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Women Workers Demand Their Rights: South Asia Campaign to highlight the contributions and rights of women migrant workers

Written on 23 January 2023.

 #WomenWorkersDemandTheirRights is a new GAATW initiative to highlight the value of women’s work in society and campaign for access of migrant workers to social security at home and abroad. It was launched as a South Asia regional campaign at an event in Kathmandu, Nepal in August 2022, by GAATW partners from Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

The campaign grew out of a recent Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) carried out by members and partners of GAATW on the issue of sustainable reintegration of women migrant workers. That research highlighted the challenges faced by many women migrant workers in the region upon their return, including poverty, lack of employment opportunities, and domestic violence. These are among the causes of their migration in the first place. Underlying these are deeply engrained patterns of stigma, rejection and discrimination, which the campaign aims to change. Its main goals are to promote the inclusion of women migrant workers in social security schemes, and to address the widespread discriminatory attitudes in societies, so that women workers can finally get the respect they deserve.

GAATW partners in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka have been carrying out a variety of public actions and activities under the banner of the campaign over the last three months, culminating in activities during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (25 November to 10 December). On 18 December International Migrants Day, the campaign highlighted the themes of promoting women migrant workers’ respect and dignity, and the need to better support them with adequate social security programmes upon their return.

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Invest in local communities to facilitate the socio-economic inclusion of migrants and survivors of trafficking

Written on 15 December 2022.

Statement by the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women

Ahead of International Migrants Day, 18 December, we call on governments, local authorities, and civil society to invest in local communities to facilitate the socioeconomic inclusion of migrants and survivors of trafficking and prevent their exploitation and abuse.

Over the past two years, GAATW, together with members and partners, conducted one of the largest pieces of global research in our history. We spoke with a total of 970 migrants and survivors of trafficking (953 women and 17 men) in 18 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Our aim was to learn more about their experiences with socioeconomic inclusion in the destination country or upon return to the country of origin. 

Time and time again, the women spoke about the importance of finding a community, either at home or abroad. Repeatedly, they brought up the positive and negative role that people in their surroundings – locals or co-nationals in the country of destination and family and community in the country of origin - play.

In countries of destination, settled communities of co-nationals were both a source of exploitation and support. Women described how their lack of legal status, limited language skills, or overt and covert racism from the local population meant that they could only find work through other migrants from their country or region. While they appreciated these job opportunities, their limited options also meant that they sometimes had to accept low-paid or exploitative jobs. One Chinese woman in Canada said, “Chinese people tend to take advantage of Chinese people. Because we are from the same origin, it’s easier to find [a job]. But the salaries they pay are mostly low.”

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