Background

 

Every year, millions of people move within and from the Asia-Pacific region to take up fixed-term, low-wage work in sectors such as agriculture, construction, care work or the service industry. These corridors are governed by temporary labour migration programmes (TLMPs), the dominant feature of labour migration in and from the Asia Pacific region. While their design and implementation are centred around the temporariness, 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.

​

Access to effective remedy for migrant workers under TLMPs is one of the human rights gaps identified in the recent OHCHR’s study on labour migration in and from the Asia-Pacific region. While mediation is promoted by many employers and States as the most preferable measure for remedy, it is often unclear whether such mediation mechanisms can handle complaints on human rights violations outside of the workplace. There is also a risk that such mechanisms are prioritized over migrant workers’ access to justice through the civil and criminal justice system. Furthermore, the temporariness of migrant workers’ stay in countries of destination may act as a barrier for them to access effective remedy and justice.

​

Such challenges for migrant workers to access remedy cannot be separated from other human rights deficits of TLMPs such as physical and mental health sufferings, poor living conditions, prolonged family separation, segregation and stigma, many of which are rooted in discriminations based on race, class, gender and nationality. Many of these deficits have been justified on the basis of the temporary legal status of the migrant workers on these programmes, under which migrants are usually not entitled to access durable pathways such as permanent residence or citizenship.

​

While TLMPs are often discussed through the lens of labour rights, their impact on a wider range of the human rights of migrant workers and of their families as well as their experiences beyond the workplace have received less attention. This session seeks to understand temporary labour migration in the context of international human rights standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and to explore alternative human rights-based labour migration pathways that can fully guarantee their access to effective remedy as well as to justice.​

​​

Objectives

​

• Unpack the impact of TLMPs on the human rights of migrant workers and their families both within and beyond the workplace with a focus on an intersectional perspective.

• Offer an opportunity for stakeholders including migrant and business communities to discuss and share their experiences of TLMPs.

• Explore how human rights standards provide guidance for the design, implementation and monitoring of labour migration pathways.

 

Questions

​

• What are the human rights challenges present in current TLMPs including in relation to the access to effective remedy and justice?

• 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, civil society and other stakeholders collaborate to ensure such pathways? ​