adminAddressing 50 international participants attending a labour migration course ending on Friday at the International Training Centre of ILO (ITCILO), Ms Gloria Moreno, a senior ILO senior labour specialist said global women workers migrate as spouses or accompanying males.
“Women constitute a higher percentage of irregular migrants and they are mainly absorbed into the domestic work bracket where they are often lowly covered or recognised,” she said.
“The women in most instances as evidenced by research are always over qualified for the jobs they would be doing abroad. The women are under represented in legal inflows for permanent migration. Government thus need to start crafting labour feminisation policies that would ensure that women can stand on their own and recognised as people who have same migration rights as their male counterparts.”
Mr Ryszard Cholewinski an ILO labour specialist said many migrant workers are at the risk of exploitation by recruitment agencies that usually mislead them about non-existent jobs in foreign countries, a situation that will lead into desperation and destitution.
“Non-citizens rarely benefit from equal workers treatment as local ones do even if they might have higher qualifications,” he said.
“They are oftenly looked down upon and relegated to agricultural or construction sectors where their working conditions are so harsh and poorly remunerated. Migrant workers need to first thoroughly research on the jobs they would want in foreign countries so that they would not be victims of human trafficking who end up in forced labour.”
The training course is being attended by labour migration specialists, trade unionists, employers, lawyers, government representatives, safe labour migration advocates and journalists.
Online Reporter