Recommendations for the Role of Countries of Origin in Protecting Migrants

The following recommendations target governments and recruitment agencies of countries of origin to improve migrant protection mechanisms and migrants’ access to social protection. They are drawn from the MMN publication, Social Protection Across Borders: Roles of Countries of Origin in Protecting Migrants’ Rights (2019), and are presented to government and recruitment agency representatives at MMN’s Second Policy Dialogue on Roles of Countries of Origin in Protecting Migrants’ Rights in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in September 2019 . 

To governments of all countries of origin

  1. Enhance information dissemination to migrants, especially with regards to the roles and responsibilities of labour attaches/counselors stationed at embassies and consulates in destination countries.
  2. Effectively enforce laws and regulations regarding recruitment agencies and actively monitor their performances to ensure full compliance with all prescribed standards including recruitment fee caps.
  3. Collectively pursue the goal of portable or transferable social security for migrant workers, and ensure migrant workers are not subject to double payment.
  4. Advocate with governments of destination countries to reduce barriers faced by migrant workers in accessing social protection schemes and social services.
  5. Negotiate with destination governments to ensure there is no loss of social security benefits when migrant workers change immigration status.

To recruitment agencies

  1. Improve the quality of pre-departure training/orientation to ensure that prospective migrant workers receive accurate and complete information before migrating overseas. This includes information relating to migrant workers’ terms of employment, applicable labour laws, their rights to contribute and benefit from various social protection schemes, roles and responsibilities of relevant actors in destination countries and how to seek overseas assistance via embassies and consulates in the event of problems.
  2. Strengthen assistance provided to migrant workers, including supporting access to social protection programmes of destination countries while abroad and upon return.
  3. Make cost structures transparent, and ensure fees do not exceed government set caps. 

To achieve these recommendations, governments and recruitment agencies should collaborate with migrant CSOs so that migrant workers’ interests are properly represented.