A/HRC/41/38 made it more likely for them to migrate internationally. 25 Furthermore, according to a study on global migration rates by country group and region of origin in 1990 and 2000, highly skilled migration rates are higher among women. More specifically, women’s highly skilled migration rate exceeds that of men in 81 per cent of cases (that is, in 160 countries). 26 In many cases, the rate is higher because they feel they can secure a much better quality of life abroad than in their home countries. 27 E. Migration channels and specific challenges while migrating 39. Until recently, women were thought to migrate primarily to join a partner or for family reunification. Today, an increasing number of women are moving on their own, 28 notably to find work, which is leading to a so-called feminization of migration. While the way in which women are migrating is changing, more women are also likely to be the lead migrant, that is, the first member of the family to migrate. Highly skilled women are more likely to migrate on their own than low-skilled women.29 Some women, however, still face difficulties in leaving their countries because of prohibitive, gender-specific discriminatory laws or restrictive social norms. Those measures can push them to migrate through irregular channels, which is more common when coupled with institutional failures to address the obstacles, as well as insufficient information on the migration process and a low level of education. During his visit to Nepal, for example, the Special Rapporteur noted that many women had to resort to irregular channels due to restrictive provisions in the relevant guidelines governing migration (A/HRC/38/41/Add.1, para. 79). Other women in Nepal are forced to pay bribes to airport officials in the range of $100–$600.30 40. Many women rely on recruitment agencies that are the gateway to finding a job in the sectors in which there is more demand for women. In many parts of the world, private recruitment agencies and brokers administer overseas employment programmes and the acquisition of work permits. There is often a lack of effective State oversight and monitoring of such agencies, compounded by the significant influence of middlemen, who take advantage of migrant women’s lack of sufficient information and awareness. Their lack of knowledge may be due to gender-specific discrimination in their home countries, making migrant women significantly more vulnerable. 41. In the Philippines, for example, there are around 1,200 licensed recruitment agencies that aim to help migrants. As the agencies tend to charge very high fees, and given that women generally earn less than men, it may be more difficult for women to pay off their accrued debt. In 2013, Amnesty International reported that Indonesian domestic workers were required to register with recruitment agencies and provide them with their own personal documents, such as marriage certificates and identity cards. If a migrant woman decided not to proceed, the recruitment agency had the power to withhold her personal documents and would only release them for a fee of 14,780,400 rupiah (equivalent to $1,730).31 In 2012, a study in Bangladesh showed cases in which recruitment brokers had 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 10 See Kanaiaupuni, S.M., “Reframing the migration question: an analysis of men, women and gender in Mexico” in Social Forces, vol. 78, No. 4 (2000), pp. 1311–1347. Frédéric Docquier, B. Lindsay Lowell and Abdeslam Marfouk, “A gendered assessment of highly skilled emigration” in Population and Development Review, vol. 35, No. 2 (2009), p. 312. Camilla Spadarecchia, “Migration of women from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe: the role of highly skilled women” in Sociología y tecnociencia/Sociology and Technoscience. Special Issue: Women on the Move, vol. 3, No. 3 (2013), p. 107. Alyson L., Dimmit Gnam, “Mexico’s missed opportunities to protect irregular women transmigrants: applying a gender lens to migration law reform” in Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal, vol. 22, No. 3 (2013), pp. 713–749. O’Neil, Fleury and Foresti, “Women on the move”, p. 9. Bandita Sijapati, “Women’s labour migration from Asia and the Pacific: opportunities and challenges” (IOM Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and Migration Policy Institute, 2015), p. 8. Amnesty International, Exploited for Profit, Failed by Governments: Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers Trafficked to Hong Kong (2013), p. 9.