A/58/275 2. Consular protection 25. The Special Rapporteur has repeatedly stated that countries of origin play an important role in protecting their nationals from violations of their rights during all phases of the migration process. She has also observed that there is often a lack of financing for consular protection by those countries; the balance between the remittances sent by migrants and the protection afforded to them by their consulates is often not in the migrants’ favour. In this connection, the Special Rapporteur would like to stress that it is important to ensure that Governments make adequate representations to protect the rights of their migrant nationals, especially women and unaccompanied minors. It is also important to monitor the application of labour and social welfare laws of receiving countries, including questions of legal assistance and medical referral, and to provide assistance to migrants and their families to ensure that agencies and employers abide by their contractual obligations. 26. The Special Rapporteur observes that in countries of transit or destination where there are significant migration flows, there is often no coordinated consular policy, nor are there bilateral agreements between consulates. The Special Rapporteur has repeatedly recommended to Governments that in order to strengthen the protection of their citizens abroad, especially women, they should consider providing human rights and gender training for embassy and consular personnel and the deployment of specialized personnel, such as doctors, social workers and psychologists, to countries with a large number of migrants. 27. The Special Rapporteur reiterates that repatriation assistance in cases where migrants lose their jobs, wish to escape from abusive situations, or wish to be repatriated for health reasons should also be provided. Consulates and embassies should be financially empowered to assume these cases, as well as to assist in the repatriation of victims of trafficking at their express request. In particular, specific attention should be devoted and protection granted to unaccompanied minors. 3. Protection of migrants working in the informal sector 28. The Special Rapporteur has documented many cases of exploitation, mistreatment, discrimination and xenophobia against migrants, primarily women and especially those working in the private sphere, such as domestic workers. In many cases workers are forced to surrender their passports or other documentation to their employers. The employers are thus free to withhold them if the migrant worker threatens to quit or change jobs. The withholding of documentation, the debts frequently incurred by migrants in their country of origin, their lack of adequate information, the fear that they will be denounced to the authorities, the absence of medical and psychological counselling and support, as well as the absence of legal assistance on the part of consulates and embassies are some of the factors that contribute to making migrants working in the informal sector, especially women and minors, particularly vulnerable to violations. Many domestic employees work long hours for a miserable salary and under truly inhumane and degrading conditions that sometimes amount to slavery. 29. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the fact that some States have undertaken efforts to prevent the exploitation of and discrimination against migrant nationals abroad. Certain States have done this by, inter alia, adopting the policy of allowing recruitment only in countries that have a good human rights record, or by allowing the recruitment only of skilled workers to prevent employment in the sex industry or 12