A/70/310 30. Migrant workers in already precarious situations can find themselves further socially isolated and vulnerable because of racism and xenophobia towards them in destination countries. Migrant workers commonly make huge sacrifices to seek work abroad and bring benefits to countries of both origin and destination. In destination countries, migrants meet the demand for cheap labour in sectors that often cannot attract nationals for the same pay and conditions, increase demand for goods and services, and pay taxes. However, these benefits are rarely acknowledged within public discourses about migrant workers that conceptualize migrants as short-term workers and often legitimize racist and xenophobic attitudes from employers and citizens. These attitudes can lead to incidences of racism and xenophobia towards migrant workers, in both the workplace and broader society within countries of destination. 31. Systemic barriers to access to justice can compound abuses of migrants’ rights. A number of human rights standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, recognize that everyone has the right to an effective remedy from the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted to him or her. Despite these international protections, many migrants face serious barriers to accessing remedies when they are exploited and abused within and as a result of the recruitment process. These barriers include: lack of local language skills; limited knowledge about rights and means of remedy; geographical constraints; restrictions of migrants’ freedom of movement; fear among migrants of retaliation or economic losses if they make complaints against recruiters; long processing times for complaints; a general practice of recruiters of deliberately avoiding giving migrants documents that could prove payment of fees; fragmentation of different rights across various judicial and non-judicial mechanisms; the growth of non-judicial remedies; and a lack of legal aid. 32. Countries of origin can add to their nationals’ difficulties as missions may show reluctance to support their pursuing judicial remedies, so as not to impact their competitiveness on the international labour recruitment market. III. The political economy of international labour recruitment 33. Abuses of migrant workers’ rights cannot be viewed as isolated incidences that take place in a vacuum. The political economy related to international labour recruitment is complex and it is essential to understand the relationship between systemic economic factors and labour recruitment to be able to develop a process that better protects the rights of migrants. A. Unethical recruitment and development impact 34. Widespread unethical recruitment practices have a significant impact on the systemic development benefits of labour migration. As recognized within the post2015 sustainable development framework, the developmental impact of labour migration is huge. In 2013, migrants sent approximately $404 billion in remittances 15-13569 9/26