A/HRC/26/35 company with regard to working conditions and labour rights of migrants employed by that company. 2. Labour inspections 62. Labour inspections are an important tool to combat human rights violations committed against migrants in the workplace and can, if undertaken properly, prevent such violations from occurring. However, the criminalization of irregular entry and stay and the emphasis on immigration control has in some countries led to cooperation between labour inspection and immigration enforcement and/or imposition of immigration control duties on labour inspectors. The result impedes effective protection of all migrants under labour law, and also intimidates migrants from denouncing abusive working conditions and from cooperating with labour authorities. A migrant who is either irregular and fears detection and deportation, or who has a precarious legal status and fears losing his/her job and subsequently becoming irregular, will be very reluctant to report workplace violations to labour inspectors, unless there is a “firewall” in place which prevents labour inspectors from communicating information about potentially irregular migrants to immigration enforcement. This “firewall” should apply not only to labour inspectors, but also to other public servants migrants may be in touch with, such as the police, social workers, school personnel and health care professionals, as well as courts, tribunals and national human rights institutions. Migrants should be able to report abuse without fear of repercussions regarding their migration status. 63. In relation to domestic workers, labour inspections are particularly challenging, as private households are usually off-limits for the inspectors and domestic workers are highly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The Special Rapporteur believes labour inspections inside private households, as well as regular meetings between domestic workers and a labour inspector outside the household, would be important to combat the too-frequent abuse of domestic workers: privacy is as important for the domestic worker as it is important for her employer. 3. Employer sanctions 64. Employers who hire migrants have unique social control over their employees. In particular, irregular migrants are easily exploited by their employers, who may require their workers to undertake strenuous physical labour for long hours, and frequently pay them far below the minimum wages, or not at all, knowing full well that their employees will avoid complaining. This control is further exacerbated by migrants’ frequent lack of community and family support and limited knowledge of the local language and legislation. When the employer provides the accommodation and food for the migrants, this increases the dependence on their employer. Unscrupulous employers sometimes retaliate against migrants who voice employment-related grievances, such as the non-payment of their wages, including by denouncing them to migration and other authorities, or fabricating criminal accusations against them. 65. Employers who violate the human rights of migrants rarely face consequences. The Special Rapporteur has met with numerous migrants, particularly irregular migrants working in informal sectors, who were being exploited by unscrupulous employers. Said employers appeared to enjoy total impunity. Fighting labour exploitation of migrants by sanctioning exploitative employers often seems to be a yet-unfulfilled State obligation, although it would contribute greatly in reducing the pull factor of irregular migration and thereby diminish the power of exploitative smugglers over migrants, by reducing the attractiveness of irregular employment and thus reduce the size of the underground labour markets that are a key pull factor of irregular migration. The EU’s Employers Sanctions Directive is a promising initiative in this respect, intended to facilitate access to justice by 16