“We wanted workers, but human beings came”: Human Rights Gaps in Temporary Labour Migration Programmes

MIGRATION
“We wanted workers, but human beings came”: Human Rights Gaps in Temporary Labour Migration Programmes

DAY 3 | 22 March
13:30-14:45 GMT+5:45

Background

Every year, millions of people move for work both within and from South Asia to other sub-regions, mainly to countries of Southeast Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). These migrations usually take place along Temporary Labour Migration Programmes (TLMPs) which are regulated, time-limited agreements for the provision of labour in identified sectors, on the condition that workers return to their own country at the end of the contract. Many migrant workers undertake repeated migrations via TLMPs in one or more destination country meaning that they work on these programmes for most of their (working) life. Yet, such pathways can offer restricted access to basic services, including overcrowded and unsanitary housing and inadequate healthcare. Migrants are not allowed to sponsor family members and notwithstanding their long-term presence in some countries, they are not entitled to access more durable legal status such as permanent residence or citizenship. TLMPs are also highly gendered. The majority of South Asian migrant workers on TLMPs are men who engage in low-wage work in sectors like construction, agriculture or tourism, while women’s access to TLMPs is often limited to domestic work, hospitality and care work.

Session Description

While TLMPs are often discussed through the lens of labour rights, their impact on a wider range of human rights of migrant workers and of their families as well as their experiences beyond the workplace have received less attention. This session compares TLMPs and international human rights standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and suggest what alternatives are possible and what human rights-based labour migration pathways look like.

Session Objectives

Unpack the impact of TLMPs on the human rights of migrant workers and their families beyond the workplace
Offer an opportunity for stakeholders including migrant communities to discuss and share their experiences of TLMPs
Explore how human rights standards provide guidance for the design and implementation of labour migration pathways.

Questions

What are human rights challenges in TLMPs?
What are the gaps between TLMPs and international human rights standards?
What do human rights-based labour migration pathways look like?
How can States, businesses and other stakeholders work towards such pathways?

Speakers

Pia Oberoi

Pia Oberoi is Senior Advisor on Migration and Human Rights for the Asia Pacific Region at the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), responsible for developing and implementing research and policy on migration and human rights in the region. Previous to this function, she was the head of global migration team at OHCHR where she headed the Office’s global work on policy and legal issues related to the human rights of all migrants and the intersections between migration and human rights.

Mikiko Otani

Mikiko Otani is the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. She is an international human rights lawyer and a practicing lawyer of family law in Japan for over 30 years, with a focus on women’s and children’s rights. She is a Council Member of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, Commissioner and a Member of the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists, a Member of the Executive Council of the Asian Society of International Law, and the former Chair of the Committee on International Human Rights of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. In addition, as an academic, she has published and taught extensively in the area of international human rights and on issues impacting children, and she has a particular interest in human rights education, early childhood development, child participation, girl child, child marriage, human trafficking, migrant children and access to justice for children, among others. Ms. Otani was admitted to Tokyo Bar Association in 1990. She holds Bachelor of Law from Sophia University in Tokyo, Master of International and Public Affairs from Columbia University in New York, Master of Law from University of Tokyo and Doctor of Law from Aoyama Gakuin University.

Anita Ghimire

Anita is a research director at Nepal Institute for Social and Environmental Research. She has a 4-years post-doctoral degree from University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Her 14-years research experiences are on social norms, gender, social protection, adolescents and migration. She has worked for FCDO, World Bank and UN agencies and collaborated with British, Swiss, Swedish and Indian Universities. She is currently the country lead for two long term research programmes- gender and adolescence (https://www.gage.odi.org/) and migration, equality and development (https://www.mideq.org/en/).

Moomina Waheed

Moomina was appointed as a Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) in 2020. Alongside her responsibilities as a Commissioner, she oversees the Investigation Department of the HRCM. With a Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation, she has served in various capacities over the past 17 years, including Corporate Affairs Director, HR Manager and Labour and Employment Consultant, and has extensive experience in human rights, labor and employment sectors, including issues related to migrant workers.

Rameshwar Nepal

Rameshwar is the South Asia Director of Equidem, a human rights and labour rights charity. He coordinates Equidem's work in across the South Asia and the Gulf and also leads work and team in Nepal. Rameshwar has worked in the field of human rights for over two and half decades, including as Amnesty International’s longest serving Director in Nepal before joining Equidem in late 2016. Rameshwar has led or involved in dozens of research including on exploitation and abuses of migrant workers into different phases.

MIGRATION “We wanted workers, but human beings came”: Human Rights Gaps in Temporary Labour Migration Programmes

DAY 3 | 22 March 13:30-14:45 GMT+5:45