Migrant workers need greater protection

Anti-Slavery International

9 February 2004 - The death of 19 cockle-pickers from China in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire last week draws vital attention to migrant workers' vulnerability to exploitation, forced labour and trafficking.

The demand for migrant workers is steadily increasing, particularly in developed countries where people are living longer and birth rates are falling. The UK government estimates 1.2 million migrant workers will be needed in the next few years, just to replace workers entering retirement. In European Union countries, the International Organization for Migration estimates that by 2050, 68 million more foreign workers will be needed just to stabilise the existing workforce.

But rather than recognising this demand and facilitating regular migration, many governments are making their immigration policies more restrictive, reducing opportunities for regular migration and making migrants vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.

To counter this trend, it is vital governments develop transparent, statutes-based immigration policies that are in the interest of migrants' and the countries concerned.

Anti-Slavery International is calling on all governments to ratify the 1990 UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families; to date, no major receiving country has ratified it. Article 21 states migrants should have protection against the confiscation of their identity documents. There is no legislation in the UK, or in most countries, which does this. The removal of migrants' documents is frequently used to pressure workers to accept bad pay and conditions.

Recent moves taken by the UK government do show some progress. The Home Secretary David Blunkett's acknowledgement on 9 February of the growing demand for migrant labour and need to protect these workers is encouraging, as is the Bill currently in Parliament that will make trafficking for labour exploitation an offence.

For more on the link between trafficking and migration see: The Migration-Trafficking Nexus: Combating trafficking through the protection of migrants' human rights

Contact Sarah Williams: s.williams@antislavery.org