A/78/180 education levels. Abuses in their place of employment remain a constant reality for many migrant workers. In extreme cases, violence and harassment at work can evolve into situations of forced labour trafficking and exploitation. 30 37. Women migrants are also often limited to riskier and lower paid work because their skills and qualifications are not recognized. 31 In countries such as Australia, Canada, Estonia, Iceland, Jordan, Mexico, Sierra Leone, the United Republic of Tanzania and the United States of America, the gender pay gap between migrant men and migrant women is much higher than the aggregate gender pay gap at the country level. 32 Women migrants are also concentrated both in informal work and in sectors with under regulation, and therefore often outside the protection of labour law, with low wages, a lack of opportunities for skills development and the risk of exploitation. Women migrant domestic workers often perform risky jobs in isolated situations and often experience wage theft and employer abuse, with limited networking opportunities, social support and access to information, in addition to lack of protection for freedom of association and collective bargaining. Following up with the employers is next to impossible because ties to the destination country are cut once they return, and local agents distance themselves once the migrants reach the destination country. Migrant domestic workers in Middle Eastern countries are particularly at risk of labour and human rights violations, as they are excluded from protection under domestic labour law and are subjected to abuse and exploitation under the sponsorship (kafala) system; and there is also a lack of effective remedies against such abuses and the existence of anti-union reprisals. 33 Furthermore, absconding laws in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, which criminalize workers who attempt to leave exploitative working conditions, ranging from wage theft to sexual and physical abuse, particularly impact women migrant domestic workers. 34,35,36 5. Freedom of assembly and association 38. Freedom of association and collective bargaining are fundamental rights of universal scope that should apply to all workers – including migrant workers (A/HRC/44/42). Denying or obstructing rights to expression, assembly and associat ion undermines migrant workers’ access to justice and the exercise of other fundamental rights. 37 The right of affiliation, freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining for domestic migrant workers is recognize d under __________________ 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 23-13823 United Nations Office on Drugs (UNODC), Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2020, Chapter IV: Trafficking for Forced Labour; the Economy of Coercion. Available at https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/tip/2021/GLOTiP_2020_Chapter4.pdf. Submission from the Women in Migration Network. ILO, The Migrant Pay Gap: Understanding Wage Differences between Migrants and Nationals (Geneva, 2020). Available at www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-migration/publications/ WCMS_763803/lang--en/index.htm. Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2018, published 108th ILC session (2019); Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Lebanon (Ratification: 1977). Available at www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:13100:0::NO::P13100_COMMENT_ID:3960664. See also CCPR/C/LBN/CO/3. Migrant-rights.org, “Huroob cases on the rise as Saudi’s Kafala reforms off to a shaky start: rife with corruption and kickbacks, lifting Huroob charges is a lucrative business for middlemen”, 25 April 2022. Available at www.migrant-rights.org/2022/04/huroob-cases-on-the-rise-as-saudiskafala-reforms-off-to-a-shaky-start/. Vani Saraswathi, “Huroob, runaway, absconding: trapping migrants in extreme abuse”, 30 September 2020. Available at www.migrant-rights.org/2020/09/huroob-runaway-abscondingtrapping-migrants-in-extreme-abuse/. Al-Sulaiman, “Jullebee Ranara’s murder is a failure of State and society”, 8 February 2023. Available at www.migrant-rights.org/2023/02/jullebee-ranaras-murder-is-a-failure-of-state-andsociety/. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990), art. 18. 11/21