E/CN.4/2004/76 page 12 exorbitant fees despite the limits and restrictions established by law. She has also received information about agencies which have continued to operate after being fined for illegal recruiting, and many cases of State officials being bribed by illegal recruitment agents. 40. In order to prevent their citizens’ rights being violated, some countries of origin have taken drastic measures, such as prohibiting the recruitment of female nationals for domestic service or establishing a minimum age for domestic service abroad.17 In others cases, so as to protect the rights of their nationals, governments such as that of the Philippines have negotiated and signed bilateral agreements or memoranda of understanding with countries of destination, and have established mechanisms and programmes to ensure that migrant domestic workers migrate in proper conditions and are aware of their rights and of complaint and protection mechanisms. 2. Illegal recruitment, trafficking, servitude and forced labour 41. The concepts of illegal recruitment, trafficking, servitude and forced labour refer to specific situations in which migrant women become involved in illegal immigration. Many women selected by so-called recruitment agencies end up being the victims of trafficking and, consequently, of servitude or forced labour. Such agencies should be subject to greater supervision both by countries of origin and of destination so that the selection of workers is carried out properly and in accordance with the law. 42. For a variety of reasons, migrant women who migrate as domestic workers run a high risk of being the victims of trafficking. Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, defines trafficking in persons as “the transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”. 43. The Special Rapporteur considers it important to understand that sex work and trafficking do not always go hand-in-hand. As indicated in the definition given in the Protocol, “trafficking” does not imply only sex work, but can also cover forced or enslaving labour that is not the prostitution of others. Besides, it must be understood that sex work may be a voluntary choice of employment. 44. The Special Rapporteur has received reports that, in many cases, women are trafficked for prostitution purposes under the false pretence of transporting them for other jobs, above all for domestic work. She has been informed that, at times, the agencies select their targets by offering working conditions that subsequently change, or do not provide the migrants with accurate information about the jobs they will be doing in the country of employment. Many migrant women who end up being employed as domestic workers left their countries with the promise of a different job that matched their qualifications, while others who emigrated to work as domestic workers end up being exploited in other forms of forced labour. Very often, the