The programme will promote the rights of women migrant workers through a rights based approach that empowers women and strengthens the accountability mechanisms to support them.

It targets Indonesia, Nepal and Jordan as programme support countries, while including Sri Lanka, Philippines and Malaysia as sources of best practice.

The programme's target group is primarily, though not only, domestic workers within and heading to Western Asia.

Objectives

The programme will:

• promote gender equal and rights-promoting policies, legislation and programmes for women migrant workers in both source and destination countries;
• promote the rights and capacities of women migrant workers through improved Services, skills training and sensitization of key players in both source and destination countries;
• promote sustained dialogue among stakeholders in source and destination countries to empower and protect the rights of women migrant workers; and
• facilitate migrants rights to organization and promote economic and social security throughout the migration cycle.

Background

The overseas employment of Asian women is becoming an area of increasing concern. Despite their economic and social contribution to both the source and destination countries, women migrant workers are subject to discriminatory practices, human and labour rights violations at every stage of the migration cycle. These rights violations occur throughout the migration cycle (pre-departure, on-site as a migrant worker and upon return to home country) and are underscored by an interface of class, gender, ethnic and nationality issues.

This has prompted a host of responses over the years from governments, NGOs, UN agencies including ILO and UNIFEM, and Intergovernmental organizations such as IOM. While a human and labour rights perspective marked the interventions of UN and international agencies, the thrust of government policy in countries that supply migrant labour has tended to be coercive, punitive and discriminatory. This is reflected in the bans and restrictions on female overseas migration still in place in some countries.

More recently, Governments, the UN and NGOs have begun to address the concerns of migrant workers from a human and labour rights perspective. UN agencies have responded mainly through various global conventions and instruments while the NGOs and migrant workers organizations have been active at the micro-level organizing migrant workers for direct support and policy advocacy.

UNIFEM will execute the project in close partnership with key stakeholders including government agencies, other UN agencies, NGOs and migrant women worker's associations. Partnership with government agencies is particularly important for addressing national policies, and for developing national infrastructures and capacities. Key partners in the Government include Ministry of Labour, Women, Interior, Foreign Affairs and Embassies. The programme is working closely with ILO and IOM for joint policy advocacy, and for developing recipient country policies, strategies and action plans for addressing issues relating to women migrant workers.

The Programme in East and South East Asia

The Regional Programme Directors oversee the implementation of activities in their respective sub-region, including country level and bi-lateral activities, and support the implementation of multi-country interventions. Activities in East and South East Asia include:

Indonesia

• map the migration process from source to destination identifying critical links and players;
• develop advocacy materials for policy/programmes that empower women;
• sensitize government agencies and NGOs to the dynamics of female migration, their economic contribution and their social and human rights;
• review and strengthen existing policies, legislation and bilateral agreements to protect the rights of migrant workers drawing on other good practices. In this regard support the continued operation of the Labour and Migration Task Force that has begun work on drafting legislation on women migrant workers;
• support innovative awareness/training programmes for Indonesian migrant workers, run jointly by government and NGOs, to provide the workers with pre-departure information, rights awareness etc;
• support creative pilot initiatives to form associations of potential/returnee migrants in at least one area of heavy concentration of out migration; and
• support regional/sub-regional initiatives for advocacy/lobbying with the state on ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families.

Philippines and Malaysia

• prepare good practice documentation on various aspects of the migration cycle including policies, legislation, bilateral agreements, database, institutions, services for migrant workers, organization of migrants, reintegration support for returnees etc. to share with target countries in the Programme, and others;
• support the formation of associations of returnee migrants in at least one area of heavy concentration of out migration;
• pilot creative approaches to facilitate the re-integration of returnee migrant workers within local social and economic structures; and
• support regional/sub-regional initiatives for advocacy/lobbying with the state on ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families.

Partners
 

• governments of Indonesia and the Philippines: Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Women's Empowerment, and Ministry of Home Affairs;
• local NGOs: Solidaritas Perempuan in Indonesia; Unlad-Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation, the Philippines; Tenangata in Malaysia; the Kanlungan Crisis Center in the Philippines; the Asian Migrant Center in Hongkong and the Migrant Forum in Asia; and
• research Institutions: Center for population and Manpower Studies, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, together with local NGOs.