A/HRC/32/40 Rapporteur is aware that many migrants are not able to access housing and, as a result, live in overcrowded or substandard housing. Migrants rarely have access to medical care and the necessary social services and benefits systems in transit or destination countries. Migrant children may be denied the right to attend school owing to their or their families’ irregular status. In some cases, trade effects may result in environmental degradation or supply-chain offences such as trafficking, forced labour or child labour, which compel migrants to leave their country of origin. 55. Trade agreements can be effective in developing robust systems for the monitoring and enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights in a way that reduces the economic and social costs associated with migration and facilitates the integration of migrants into the destination country. Where necessary, firewalls can also be created between immigration enforcement and public services so that public officials are able to perform their important social functions without interference. The Caribbean Community established the Council for Human and Social Development, composed of ministers of the member States, who convene to discuss labour and other social issues. 56. Trade agreements have also enhanced the portability of social security and other acquired rights, promoted the mutual recognition of diplomas, qualifications and skills, supported the education and training of migrants, and lowered the transfer costs of remittances. MERCOSUR guarantees migrants equal civil, social, cultural and economic rights and freedoms as nationals in the destination country, particularly the right to work and to carry out any legal activity. The Ibero-American Multilateral Agreement on Social Security, to which two European and 12 Latin American countries are signatories, covers all persons who have been subject to the social security legislation of any of the signatory States and their family members, and provides for cash benefits in the event of disability, old age, death of a family member and employment-related injury. Human rights concerns of vulnerable population groups 57. The Special Rapporteur recommends that special attention be paid to the potential impact of trade on migrants who may be further marginalized by other intersecting mutable or immutable characteristics, for instance gender, age, race, minority or indigenous status, disability, medical condition or sexual orientation. While these traits are not inherent vulnerabilities on their own, migrants in these groups may be more at risk of exploitation and abuse because of their irregular status and precarious labour contracts. Gender 58. The Special Rapporteur stresses that the services sector constitutes the largest employer for women worldwide and believes that well-facilitated and regulated migration can offer women unprecedented opportunities for financial independence and upward mobility. It is promising that regional agreements such as COMESA have prompted the elimination of discriminatory national legislation against women. 59. Women, particularly those in the care sector, are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, as they work in physical and social isolation. Men too may experience abuse and exploitation, in sectors such as construction and agriculture. The Special Rapporteur believes in the importance of trade agreements providing all migrants with the opportunity to seek redress for human rights and labour standards violations, without fear of detection, detention and deportation. Children 60. Migrant children have unique concerns in the context of trade, as they comprise a significant proportion of child labourers in informal sectors, as well as in the commercial 13