A/HRC/44/42 Committee urged States to recognize the right of migrant domestic workers to form and join organizations, regardless of migration status, encourage self-organization, and provide migrant domestic workers with information about relevant associations that can provide assistance in the country/city of origin and employment (paras. 45–47). 51. Language differences may also prove a formidable barrier, particularly when trying to organize migrants from different linguistic backgrounds into a common association. In some countries, instructions on the application process for associations are available only in national languages. All organizational documents also need to be translated into and made available in the required languages. The language barrier proves particularly onerous where migrants also lack information about laws and procedures governing the exercise of their freedom of association in the destination country. This may be exacerbated by a lack of good freedom of information laws and practices. 52. Concern over loss of status, deportation or placement in a detention camp also dissuades migrants from organizing in a way that they fear might place them at odds with the authorities. This is even more the case where a migrant’s status depends on a restrictive visa regime that subjects migrants to a character test, therefore allowing officials broad discretion in visa cancellation. 53. Furthermore, stigmatization against migrants can interfere with their ability to associate by making it more difficult for them to find safe spaces in which to congregate or to access the information or services that they need to organize. Discrimination against migrants is likely not only to destabilize their lives by, for example, obstructing their ability to find work or housing, but also to impede any attempts to organize. Private employers 54. Private employers may erect practical barriers to migrant workers organizing. For instance, where migrant employees live in employer-provided housing, employers can hinder union organizers’ access to migrant workers by threatening to prosecute under trespass laws. Even where labour organizers may have the legal right to access migrants in company housing, there have been reports of employers denying outreach workers access to migrant housing by calling local authorities who, even when their understanding of the law is incorrect, reiterate the employers’ threats to drive labour organizers from “private property”. This has reportedly also been a problem for health or religious outreach workers in some countries. 55. Employers may also retaliate against migrant workers who attempt to organize. Retaliation against migrant workers is a concern for both the migrant workers themselves and the community at large as it promotes a climate of secrecy that can damage the health and safety of the wider public. Retaliation is an aggravated problem where a migrant worker’s visa is tied to a particular employer – for example, as with the kafalah sponsorship system of employment – so a decision to fire the worker will result in deportation. The inordinate power exercised by the employer creates an environment in which migrant workers’ rights may be violated and remain unredressed. 25 The Special Rapporteur welcomes the efforts of Qatar to reform its labour market with a view to ending the kafalah system. This marks a major step forward in upholding the rights of migrants. 26 56. Employer retaliation for migrant organizing may also take the form of firing the migrant employee, denying employees better work assignments or overtime, filing a defamation suit against an outspoken employee, or putting temporary migrant workers on a blacklist so that when they attempt to apply for another temporary work permit, it is denied. To combat blacklisting as a retaliatory measure, migrant workers should be given a presumption of eligibility for future work unless an employer can show cause for their nonemployment. 25 26 Migrant Forum in Asia, “Policy brief No. 2: reform of the kafala (sponsorship) system”. Available at http://mfasia.org/migrantforumasia/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/reformingkafala_final.pdf. ILO, “Landmark labour reforms signal end of kafala system in Qatar”, press release, 16 October 2019. 9