A/HRC/53/26 of integration and the absence of firewalls,22 vulnerability to modern slavery for migrants without regular migration status becomes even greater.23 35. Migrant workers also face challenges and abuses due to restrictive migration labour policies in countries of destination. For instance, some key obstacles to the empowerment of migrant workers to fight for their rights are that third-country national workers’ visas, and the resulting ability to acquire or keep regular residence status, are often tied to one specific employer and an employment contract. In addition, certain regularization schemes require migrant workers to allocate a long period of time to a specific employment arrangement. Such instances can lead to situations in which migrant workers accept exploitative work conditions in order to acquire or renew regular residence status or to regularize their status.24 36. It is important to note that the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families have recognized several negative impacts on children’s well-being of having an insecure and precarious migration status, including but not limited to the risk of physical harm, psychological trauma, marginalization, discrimination, xenophobia and sexual and economic exploitation; different forms of violence on irregular migration journeys or in irregular situations in countries of destination; the risk of being denied access to education, housing, health care, recreational activities, participation, protection, social security and justice; the risk of child marriage, violence, trafficking, forced recruitment, exploitation and child labour, which is exacerbated when accompanied by a lack of birth registration and childhood statelessness; and risks to children’s physical and mental health, recognizing that children experience stress differently than adults.25 37. Undocumented migrant women and girls face specific vulnerabilities deriving from exploitative and illegal recruitment practices, especially those related to the payment of recruitment fees and poor working conditions. Migrant women are overrepresented in the informal economy, lacking access to decent work, social protection, labour rights or services. Women migrants are at increased risk of workplace violence and harassment and sexual and gender-based violence and are often reluctant to report crimes and transgressions due to their irregular or precarious migration status and are therefore unable to exercise their right to seek appropriate and effective remedies.26 Migrant women without a regular migration status are often denied access to health care, housing and other vital public services. Gender-based discrimination against them is compounded by further discrimination based not only on their migration status but on ethnicity, race, class or caste identity.27 38. The Special Rapporteur observes that, around the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase in the type and complexity of vulnerabilities for migrants and a diversification of protection needs. Requests by migrants for low-threshold care have increased, including for the provision of services dedicated to health protection, legal protection, access to training and job placement services and the maintenance of housing autonomy. Victims of severe labour exploitation, in particular, have been clamouring for agile, customized and quick access to the labour market. During the first and second waves of the pandemic, because of the need to observe precautionary measures against the spread of the virus, direct access to such public services as social services, employment offices and 22 23 24 25 26 27 GE.23-06641 Firewalls are measures to separate immigration enforcement activities from public service provision, labour law enforcement and criminal justice processes to protect migrants, including migrant victims of crime, that States and non-State actors implement to ensure that persons with irregular status are not denied their human rights. See submission from Anti-Slavery International and Focus on Labour Exploitation. See submission from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Joint general comment No. 3 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families/No. 22 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017) on the general principles regarding the human rights of children in the context of international migration, para. 40; and submission from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). United Nations Network on Migration, “Guidance note”. See Ibid., paras. 9 and 12. 9