Forced Labour Migration and

1. Forced Labour Migration and Migrant Rights Activism in Asia MA in Human Rights and Democratisation (Asia Pacific) Professor Nicola Piper

2. Objectives • Shedding light on conceptual confusion between FL, slavery, trafficking (yet, many overlaps) • Sensitisation of political discourse around those concepts • Institutional architecture around this topic area • NGO/trade union campaigns

3. Trafficking • Trafficking • usually treated as a women’s/children’s issue (historical reasons) • predominantly applied to prostitution/’sex and entertainment’ sector The main international NGO networks involved: - Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW) • Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) • ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography & Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes)

4. But trafficking is more than that…. • “people are generally not aware that anti-trafficking laws can be applied just as readily to a situation involving the exploitation of a male industrial cleaner, for example, as they could to a woman brought to Australia for the purpose of sex slavery” • (Fiona David, “Labour Trafficking”, 2010: iii) Remaining issues for critical debate concern the validity of drawing a distinction between sex trafficking and labour trafficking……

5. Trafficking in Persons UN Definition • Article 3 of the UN Trafficking Protocol (UN 2000) defines trafficking as a process composed of three elements: • 1. anactionby the trafficker (recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons), and • 2. the action must be undertaken by one of the following means: force or threat of force, other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, giving or receiving payments to achieve consent of a person having control over another; and • 3. the action must be undertaken for the purpose of ‘exploitation’, a concept which includes at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labouror services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs

6. Trafficking/forced labour Two components/angles: • migration (internal/international) a. irregular (“illegal”) migration across borders b. rural to urban in internal context (China, VN) = confiscation of passports; • exploitation/force/coercion element = false promises, abduction, debt bondage a. who is victim/perpetrator? b. who is responsible? (legally, politically)

7. Migration element Understanding migration dynamics • Drivers of migration (push and pull factors) • Migration policies • restrictive/selective, on employer tied temporary basis, few legal channels • Migration process • involvement of recruitment agencies/middle person/brokers – incurrence of huge debts (BassinaFarbenblum’s work) • Feminisation of migration • domestic/care work (Stuart’s topic)

8. Exploitation/Coercion element Two angles: • 1. crime angle (punitive approach) • focus on individual traffickers as violators • in context of international migration, states see themselves as victims (of illegal border crossing) (difference between smuggling and trafficking – confusion over that) 2. human rights angle - focus on human rights of the trafficked violence against women victim support labour rights (e.g. ‘sex work’ frame) = POST-MIGRATION

9. Forced Labour • not solely related to context of migration • from work/employment perspective • specific sectors: • agriculture/plantations • fishing • cleaning • hospitality • domestic work • construction • manufacturing industries

10. Forced Labour - advocacy • Integrating Forced Labour into Forced Migration • addressee: Global Migration Governance institutions/fora/discourse • migration-development nexus • actors: • Migrant Forum in Asia (which is part of the PGA and the GCM) and • global trade unions (esp BWI, ICTU – e.g. 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign)

11. “Make migration a choice not a necessity”

12. “right not having to migrate”/”right to remain” • „..... theright not toemigrateshouldbe in place in the countries oforigin. This impliescreatingthenecessaryconditionsthattransformmigrationinto a choiceratherthan a necessity“ • (Final Declarationofthe 5th World Social Forum on Migration, clause 31, 2012)

13. Forced Migration frame… …to address the “push” factors from a HR perspective • Human rights as a core framework in development • Right to Development (Declaration from 1986) • Rights-based approach to development • In context of labour migration: • Right to Work/Decent Work and Right to Social Security/Protection ‘at home’ and ‘abroad’ – ICESCR In context of critiquing the neoliberal growth-oriented model of developmentbuilt on privatisation, withdrawal of the state from providing public goods etc. = specific gender implications (triple feminisation of work, migration and poverty) But: difficulties of addressing social and economic rights persist!

14. Statement by President Benigno Aquino III…. ……in his Social Contract with the Filipino People Expressing the need to move from a • “government that treats its people as an export commodity and a means to earn foreign exchange, disregarding the social cost to Filipino families to a government that creates jobs at home, so that working abroad will be a choice rather than a necessity, and when its citizens do choose to become OFWs, their welfare and protection will still be the government priority” • (Aquino, 2012) • Blurring of citizenship and human rights by placing greater emphasis on responsibilities to deliver migrant rights by origin countries…..

15. Advocacy – Levels of Engagement • Global and national level – how about regional (ASEAN)?

16. The END • Thank you for your attention!