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17
International Journal Of Law And Criminology
(ISSN
–
2771-2214)
VOLUME
04
ISSUE
11
P
AGES
:
17-22
OCLC
–
1121105677
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
ABSTRACT
This paper reviews the role and importance of international organisations in protecting international labour migrants'
rights. Millions of people are crossing borders to seek employment, and the protection of their rights is essentially
related to their fair treatment, social security, and access to justice in a foreign country. Key organisations, such as the
International Labour Organization and the United Nations, have developed conventions, policies, and frameworks
that would guide labor migrants for workplace conditions, social protection, legal assistance, and family reunification.
This article examines the shifting landscape of labor migrant rights using international conventions and organizational
activities, along with the problems involved in creating and implementing such protection for them across the world.
Current works to adapt international standards to the heterogeneous requirements of labor migrants and reviews
future strategies that will enhance these protections at a global level, are also given due consideration.
KEYWORDS
International organizations, labor migrants, protection of rights, International Labour Organization, United Nations,
social protection, fair labor practices, international conventions, migrant rights, family reunification.
INTRODUCTION
The forces of globalisation, coupled with economic
inequalities, have driven millions into employment in
countries other than their own, giving rise to a massive
international labour migrant population. For such a
population, the hope of an improved living standard is
met
with
vulnerability
in
work
conditions,
inaccessibility to social benefits, and threats of
exploitation. Protection of the rights of international
labour migrants should lie at the heart of their welfare
and equitable treatment. This paper explores the
Research Article
THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN PROTECTING THE
RIGHTS OF INTERNATIONAL LABOR MIGRANTS
Submission Date:
October 29, 2024,
Accepted Date:
November 03, 2024,
Published Date:
November 08, 2024
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/ijlc/Volume04Issue11-03
Dilshodbek Toshpo
ʻ
latov
Researcher, Director of "786 HIMOYA" Law Office, Uzbekistan
Journal
Website:
https://theusajournals.
com/index.php/ijlc
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
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extent
to
which
international
organizations,
particularly the International Labour Organization and
the United Nations, further and protect such rights.
RESULTS
The International Labour Organization, ILO, was
founded in 1919 as a League of Nations specialized
agency. Since then, it has become the only
international institution for the protection of workers
around the world, including international labor
migrants. Labor standards and protection for workers
have been ILO concerns since the establishment, both
as means toward social justice and international
stability. The adoption of international labor standards
represents one major initiative of the ILO to extend
protection for labor migrants. The basic protections of
migrant workers are enunciated in the Migration for
Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), and
the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions)
Convention, 1975 (No. 143), among which are the
principles of non-discrimination, fair recruitment, safe
working conditions, and social security.
Convention No. 97, on Migration for Employment,
prohibits discrimination against migrant workers and
makes provisions against fraudulent recruitment with
the intent to exploit them. The later Convention No.
143 deals with abusive migration practices and asks for
equal rights of migrant workers, protection against
exploitative conditions of work, and adequate
measures against employers engaging in such
activities. These conventions have become reference
points for member states, many of whom have used
them in developing national policies for protection.
Another flagship ILO initiative is the Decent Work
Agenda, which has gone so far as to establish a
threshold for decent pay, safety at workplaces, and
social protection policies to achieve general welfare.
To labor migrants, the Decent Work Agenda offers an
opportunity to secure improved working conditions
since it acts as a guide toward the implementation of
just employment policies and safety standards by
member states. By working with governments,
employers, and workers' organizations, the ILO lets
programs be enacted that curb abusive practices while
extending labour migrants' access to social benefits.
For example, the Southeast Asia Safe and Fair
Programme by ILO works with local governments in
keeping women migrant workers from further abuse.
It provides them with safe and fair treatment when
working in host countries.
The United Nations, established in 1945, has taken an
active lead in advancing the protection of human
rights, including migrant workers. The UN, through its
specialized agencies such as the International
Organization for Migration and the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees tackles labor migrant
issues by providing policy guidance, integration
programs, and safe migration channels. The
International Convention on the Protection of the
Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families, 1990, passed by the UN General Assembly, is
the most comprehensive international agreement in
the protection of the rights of migrants across borders.
This Convention has been an assertion of migrants'
rights to be treated equitably with respect to access to
medical care, education, and social security.
However, despite the above-mentioned importance of
this convention, it has often suffered from problems of
ratification, in that many states make utmost efforts
not to be completely obliged by the convention's
provisions because of issues relating to sovereignty,
resource distribution, and domestic labor markets. It
does, however, provide a model for numerous national
policies and has inspired multiple regional agreements
on protecting the rights of labor migrants, most
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notably within the framework of the European Union
and the African Union.
The 2018 adopted Global Compact for Safe, Orderly,
and Regular Migration presents yet another milestone
in the UN's efforts at managing migration in a manner
respectful of human dignity and rights in labor.
Nonbinding perhaps, the Compact urges nations
toward the best practices in the governance of
migration, such as combat against human trafficking,
access to legal channels, and fair labor treatment for
migrants. It also fosters cooperation in such a way that
calls upon states to work together in devising
migration policies that are beneficial to both sending
and receiving countries. Example- The Compact acted
as a vehicle for the creation of bilateral agreements
between Latin American and European countries
aimed at smoothing the migration process and
ensuring fair conditions for migrants' work. Social
protection stands as another major domain in which
international organizations advocate for rights
regarding labor migrants. Legal, administrative, and
financial barriers all commonly prevent migrants from
receiving social benefits in their host countries. To this
end,
the
ILO's
Social
Protection
Floors
Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202) recommends
minimum levels of social protection through which
member states can extend health care, income
security, and other basic services to migrants. This
recommendation underlines the principle that all,
including migrants, should have access to health care
and social insurance, including income support in case
of need, for instance, when they fall sick or become
unemployed.
Social protection floors provide a basic level of
protection; many are particularly vulnerable, such as
labor migrants. The ILO, through collaborations with
countries, tries to establish frameworks where
migrants can get these benefits either through
bilateral agreements or by promoting portability of
benefits. For instance, the ILO has facilitated the
creation of social security arrangements between
countries like the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, which
have allowed the latter's Filipino labor migrants to
keep their social benefits when they return to the
Philippines. This would be necessary to ensure that
migrant workers could receive support without loss of
benefits associated with crossing international
borders.
Labor migrants in the sectors that are not well
monitored, like agriculture, construction, and domestic
work, are among those most at risk of being exploited.
At the same time, abuse prompts a number of the
initiatives regarding migrant workers to protect
themselves by proposing a range of protective
measures. In 2014, the Forced Labour Protocol of the
ILO further refined the commitment of this
organization in its effort to eradicate forced labor by
adding more stringent measures on governments to
protect labor migrants from coercion, exploitation,
and abuse.
Another priority of the UN is human trafficking,
considered to be one of the worst forms of
exploitation that labor migrants suffer. In this respect,
UNODC and the Global Compact on Migration work
toward the creation of safe migration pathways that
reduce the risk of trafficking and exploitation. Such
organizations support anti-trafficking laws in every
nation, seeking transparency in recruitment practices
so as to break down such networks preying on labor
migrants. An example is that UNODC's Blue Heart
Campaign raises awareness and supports prevention
programs to provide migrants with knowledge of their
rights and ways to seek help when facing potential
exploitation. This has been further strengthened
through protection against abuse by the ILO Fair
Recruitment Initiative, which ensures that the
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recruitment practices are ethical, legal, and
transparent. Through this program launched in several
countries, it is working with sending and receiving
countries to control private recruitment agencies, raise
awareness among migrants, as well as guarantee fair
treatment of the former in the recruitment process.
For instance, the ILO in Nepal has partnered district
level governments to develop systems to monitor
recruitment agencies to help protect labor migrants
from exorbitant fees and false contracts.
Despite the significant achievements that have been
recorded in this field, a lot still needs to be achieved if
the rights of labor migrants are to be secured globally.
To begin with, there is inadequate ratification by
countries of the Migrant Workers Convention of the
UN and other similar conventions due to political and
economic resistance by receiving countries. Besides,
the discrepancy in national level standards on labor
yields unequal protection for labor migrants because
of the absence of mechanisms in certain countries for
the enforcement of workers' rights effectively.
Furthermore, restrictive immigration policies can
deprive labor immigrants of access to social benefits,
making them even more vulnerable to abuse.
To combat these crises, international organizations are
addressing the two areas of increasing the number of
ratification efforts and enhancing mechanisms for
better enforcement at national levels. These include
various collaborative initiatives of international
organizations with local governments and NGOs aimed
at enabling them to access migrant workers directly
and raise awareness about their rights. Better data
collection and monitoring also reveal where labor
migrants do not enjoy adequate protection. This
therefore informs specific interventions. For example,
in Latin America, the ILO and UN work with national
governments to collect statistics on conditions of labor
migrants; they use data to develop policy
enhancements and publicize labor migrants' economic
contributions.
6.
Challenges
to
Effective
Implementation of International Protections
Although
international
organizations
like
the
International Labour Organization and the United
Nations have drafted wide-ranging frameworks in the
protection of labor migrant rights, there are a number
of residual problems impeding the translation of these
protective measures into substance. Serious problems
exist in the form of the poor ratification of key
conventions such as the UN's International Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of Their Families. The most frequent
grounds on which conventions are mentioned by many
countries as barriers to ratification are concerns with
national sovereignty, economic impact, and resource
allocation. Lacking universal ratification, conventions
cannot be uniformly enforced; accordingly, many labor
migrants fall between a patchwork of protections.
Variability in national policies further complicates
efforts to enforce rights among labor migrants. The
diversity in labor laws, immigration policies, and social
protections is so varied among countries; thus,
treatment and rights accorded to labor migrants
become incoherent between and amongst different
countries. In some countries, labor migrants may have
restricted or no access to some services, such as health
and social security, and so it is difficult to keep the
same standard of protection constant. Such
fragmentation in national policies also affects the
mobility across borders and pursuits of help by labor
migrants, most especially in regions that have complex
immigration laws or restrictive visa policies.
Another significant challenge is a set of lack of
mechanisms for enforcement within some countries.
Even when international conventions are ratified,
implementing and enforcing such standards at the
local level can be challenging, especially for nations
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with limited resources or weak regulatory frameworks.
Most of these labor inspection systems within low-
income and middle-income countries are really
underfunded, with limited staffing, which reduces the
capacity for monitoring labor conditions to prevent
exploitation. It is these restrictive immigration policies
that worsen these very problems by excluding labor
migrants from access to legal protections or social
benefits. Labor migrants may also be discriminated
against or stigmatized in many host countries-a
situation that makes it difficult for them to seek
redress or claim their rights. 7. Further Protection: A
Way Forward In order to keep up with these
challenges, international organizations are adopting
new strategies with an aim to increasing protection for
the rights of labor migrants. One of the key areas of
focus is the ratification of conventions that protect the
rights of labor migrants. The ILO and UN are
encouraging an increasing number of countries to
ratify the conventions, such as the Migrant Workers
Convention, particularly in those regions with high
flows of migration. The organizations intend to
maintain dialogue and present successful case stories
so as to be able to show more economic and social
benefits of compliance with the rights of labor
migrants to attract more countries into these
frameworks.
Another promising direction involves improving
enforcement mechanisms both at the national and
international level. The collaboration with local
governments, NGOs, and labor unions is of particular
importance in this respect. Labor unions and NGOs
perform a variety of tasks that include monitoring
working conditions, reporting abuses, and providing
direct support to labor migrants so that they would
know their rights and where to seek protection. This
makes the interventions to be more focused and
culturally relevant to address particular challenges that
face labor migrants in enhancing partnerships
between international organizations and local entities.
Data collection and monitoring is enhanced to identify
gaps in protection, with the attendant assurance that
policies will respond to the actual needs of the labor
migrants. International organizations, through data
collection and analysis on the demographics of labor
migrants, working conditions, and utilization of social
services, would further be in a position to determine
the shortfalls in protecting these individuals and,
subsequently, advocate policy changes. The UN and
ILO have begun collaborating with governments to
establish databases that provide real-time insight into
labor migration patterns. For instance, in the event of
monitoring by international organizations of areas
with the largest concentration of migrant laborers--the
Middle East and Southeast Asia--they will be able to
plan some strategies for addressing very specific issues
like wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and
inadequate health service availability.
CONCLUSION
Besides these measures, portability of social benefits
has increasingly been considered to be an effective
means of protecting labor migrants' rights. Migratory
ILO has actively been in support of and worked toward
the promotion of bilateral or multilateral agreements
that allow migrants to keep their social security
benefits upon migration across borders. The
agreements protect the labor migrants' entitlements
from being lost either at home upon return or upon
retransfer to a new host country, hence economic
security as well as welfare.
In an increasingly migratory world, international
organizations bear principal responsibility for the
protection of rights associated with international labor
migrants. The development of conventions, pleading
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for equal treatment, and the promotion of social
protection-activities embraced by organizations like
the ILO and UN-constitute part of the continuing
struggle for equal treatment of labor migrants.
Migration is a shifting landscape, and in the same vein,
strategies and commitments
by international
organizations must also be continuously evolved if the
rights of labor migrants around the world are to be
realized. It is only through persistent effort and
cooperation at the global level that any prospect for a
future can be entertained where all labor migrants
everywhere enjoy fair treatment, safety, and respect.
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