Category Archives: Documents

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Philippine Jurisprudence on Overseas Employment, 1995-2015 book now available

LBB PHILIPPINES is pleased to share with you its second publication “PHILIPPINE JURISPRUDENCE ON OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT(1995-2015).”

Following the successful completion and publication of our first compilation, “Selected Philippine Laws, Rules and Regulations on Overseas Employment”, we thought that it is essential to have a companion book in the form of an annotated topical index of cases on migrant worker related issues decided by the Philippine Supreme Court. We scoped almost 500 cases from 1995 to 2015, which are milestone years for migrants’ rights – 1995 was the year when Republic Act No. 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 was enacted by Congress following the public outcry over the execution of Filipino domestic worker Flor Contemplacion in Singapore; 2015 marked the 25th anniversary of the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families under UN Resolution No. 45/158; and 2015 likewise marked the 20th anniversary of the ratification of this Convention by the Philippine Senate. 

DOWNLOAD THE BOOK HERE!


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LBB PH Book Launch Held Successful

As we celebrate today the 25th Anniversary of the UN’s International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families, the LBB Phil, by way of expressing its support to and solidarity with all the migrant workers, launched its first Book, a compendium of Selected Philippine Laws, Rules and Regulations on Overseas Employment on 16 December 2015, in Quezon City, Philippines. 

The book launch was attended by the members of the LBB Philippines, Selected government participants, CSO representatives and other stakeholders. The book is intended for the use of Lawyers and other advocates in addressing access to justice for Filipino migrant workers.

CLICK HERE FOR THE E-COPY OF THE BOOK.


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Lawyers Beyond Borders: A Brief History

Category : Documents , Resources

This narrative presents a brief history of a network thriving to bring justice for migrant workers and members of their families. The Lawyers Beyond Borders (LBB) is a transnational network established by Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) in 2011 in response to the crucial need for more fair and adequate legal redress mechanisms for migrant workers and members of their families, and increased coordination among lawyers, legal aid practitioners, civil society and State and non-State actors in countries of origin and destination. Members of the network focus on migrant workers’ rights violation cases in Asia, initially and particularly West Asia, and then later on expanded to include other migration corridors of the continent.

LBB is rooted and has visibly emerged from a long and steady history of efforts by grassroots groups, self-organized migrant workers, their families and individual advocates – the frontliners – who work on the ground and collaborate to achieve the realization of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families. The initiatives of the frontliners to resolve migrants’ rights violations and social issues were possible even with humble resources. LBB provides strategic opportunities for the grassroots to push for greater concerted actions on building and strengthening capacities of network members and partners on provision of legal assistance and rights advocacy, bridging access to justice for migrant workers and members of their families, and empowering the latter through the rule of law.

This narrative illustrates how LBB has evolved through the years but it also ¬shows how it is part of a vast continuum of the advocacy of the MFA network for the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families in Asia, and the potential influence the network can bring beyond the region.

Read the full narrative here


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[Research] Labour Migrants and Access to Justice in Contemporary Qatar

Category : Documents , News

By Andrew Gardner (University of Puget Sound), Silvia Pessoa (Carnegie Mellon Qatar), Laura Harkness; December 2014

Read the research in these languages: English ; Arabic

The 60-page report looks at migrants’ interactions with three primary institutions – the Department of Labour Relations, the Labour Court and the Ministry of Interior. The authors found that only a tiny proportion of migrants ever take labour-related cases to the justice system. Of those who do, a large proportion end up abandoning their cases because they cannot support themselves during what are often lengthy legal proceedings. However, those who do persevere and see their cases through to the end often get positive judgements. One conclusion is that the justice system could play a much more influential role in adjudicating labour relations. With incremental improvements to expand migrants’ access to legal redress, the experiences of millions of migrants could be improved.

Specific recommendations include:

  • Increase the speed of handling migrants’ cases, which currently often take a year or more
  • Provide translation services for migrants, who speak more than 20 languages
  • Allow migrants to seek other legal work while a case is in process
  • Provide authorities with more punitive measures, including penalties for employers who withhold worker pay or refuse to attend court
  • Create a monitoring program to track migrant worker cases and complaints, so as to pinpoint problems and solutions

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RecruitmentReform.org

Category : Documents , News

RecruitmentReform.org is a global online platform that strategically collates information on campaigns, policies and initiatives, events, case studies, news articles, laws, and international conventions related to recruitment. It seeks to continuously update visitors of the realities on migration recruitment and the initiatives that exist to address or in some cases exacerbate these concerns.

It is evident today that recruitment practices plays an important role in the entire cycle of migration from the initial stage of recruitment, to pre-departure training, to signing of contracts, to conciliation and repatriation. In light of this, the need for collective global initiatives that will strategically address the problems in labour recruitment has never been more crucial than today.

In the last Global Forum on Migration and Development Civil Society Days (GFMD CSD) in Stockholm, a series of meetings was organized on labour migration and recruitment. Among the recommendations was to establish an Open Working Group on Labour Migration and Recruitment and to create a global knowledge-based online platform on recruitment.

RecruitmentReform.org is run and managed by a small team based in the MFA Secretariat. MFA continuously adds data to the online platform and invites comments on how the online platform can be further improved. To signify interest for collaboration or if you would like to contribute relevant resource materials, please send MFA an email at mfa@mfasia.org

Visit the online platform here: http://recruitmentreform.org/


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[Research] Access to Justice for Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon

The ILO and Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center have conducted an ambitious research to better understand the barriers to access to justice faced by migrant domestic workers in Lebanon.


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[Report] Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Nepal

migrant-workers-access-justice-home-nepal-featured-20140610Open Society Foundations launched a study in Kathmandu with the Centre for Labour and Mobility entitled Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Nepal. This is the second in a series of studies OSF commissioned on accountability in recruitment and access to legal remedies for migrant workers in their home countries.

Read more here


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[Video] Beyond Threads – Garment Workers in Jordan

Tamkeen produced an orientation video about Bangladeshi migrant workers in the garment sector and their rights according to Jordanian legislation.


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[Report] Breaking the Isolation: Access to Information and Media Among Migrant Domestic Workers in Jordan and Lebanon

Category : Documents

breaking-isolation-featured-20140221 Breaking the Isolation provides an assessment of how migrant domestic workers are using technology to communicate, assert their rights, and collaborate with civil society organizations and governments to improve working conditions.

Visit the Open Society Foundations website to learn more about the publication.


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[Reports] ILO Reports submitted to the 103rd Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC)

MFA has identified the ILC as a crucial forum that would set the tone for international migration policy and hence, a process the MFA members needed to engage in. In 2004, MFA participated in the ILC General Discussion on Migration. MFA also actively engaged the ILC in the lead up to the adoption of ILO Convention 189 on domestic work. MFA has also strongly campaigned for the ratification of the ILO Conventions 97, 143 and 189.

The 2014 ILC has included in its agenda two major issues that impact migrants’ rights: 1) Strengthening Action to End Forced Labour and 2) Transitioning from the Informal to Formal Economy. In line with this, the ILO has released two reports providing information on the law and practice concerning workers in the informal economy and workers subjected to forced labour. The reports were released with the aim of coming up with a standard setting to address issues of forced labour and workers in the informal economy. The law and practice reports can be accessed at the following links: