Migrant Workers’ Rights and Status under International Law: the Asian Experience

The importance and extent of the migration phenomenon, affecting as it does huge numbers of people the world over cannot be overemphasized. Coming from third world countries, poverty-stricken and strangers in foreign lands, migrant workers irrespective of country of origin indeed become vulnerable to oppression and exploitation and all kinds of abuses. The question that needs to be addressed continues to be whether or not the existing ILO Conventions and Recommendations as well as the core international human rights treaties together with the International Convention on Migrant Workers have been adequately implemented in order to effectively address the problems related to the promotion and protection of migrant workers’rights. Given the flood of unabated reports and complaints of abuses and exploitation that migrant workers the world over have to suffer and contend with, the answer is quite obvious. While bilateral and multilateral agreements continue to serve the specific concerns of sending and receiving States pertinent to the protection of the rights of migrant workers, the real need is for a continent-wide forum in Asia which can eventually consolidate all mechanisms and measures that will promote and protect the rights of migrant workers in a truly comprehensive and integrated manner.