SAFE & FAIR: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region

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H.E Mr. Hou Vuthy, Secretary of State of Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training

Mr. Bryan Fornari, Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to The Kingdom of Cambodia

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

Dear UN Colleagues

On behalf of the United Nations in Cambodia, I am honored to join the Safe and Fair Project Advisory Committee-PAC. My gratitude to the co-chairs – the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training and Ministry of Women’s Affairs – for their commitment to convene today’s meeting, despite challenges with responding to the pandemic outbreak. This indicates accountability and acknowledgement of violence against women, including women migrant workers, as a cornerstone to build back better.

This Safe and Fair Project Advisory Committee meeting is timely. Today, the situation at the Cambodian border is worrisome. We expect an influx of migrants who will face hardship and vulnerabilities. While this program started before the pandemic, we can learn from and build on it for a more systematic response. Let me outline how.  

Violence against women is a serious human rights concern. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in all forms of violence against women and girls and threatens to roll back achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Echoing the UN Secretary-General’s call for a “cease-fire” at home: governments are urged to make prevention and redress of violence against women and girls a key part of national response plans for COVID-19.

That is why I am pleased that Safe and Fair, which is part of the EU-UN spotlight initiative, is implemented in Cambodia with a focus on the most vulnerable – women migrant workers.

Women migrant workers face structural and systemic discrimination while accessing services throughout the migration cycle. Multiple barriers prevent women from seeking help through formal and informal channels and not knowing where to find respectful and support service.  

This discrimination harms us all. Especially when it turns into violence. It harms the economy, the society and the individual. The estimated global cost of violence against women and girls is 1,5 trillion USD.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge of unimaginable proportion to us all. It revealed the structural weaknesses of our systems and responses not only to address gender-based violence and migration, but in most aspects of how our societies and economies function.

However, with a crisis comes an opportunity. An opportunity for transformation. An opportunity to build back better. This is our chance to improve the systems and to ensure protection of women migrant workers’ rights.

Paramount evidence has shown that migration can be beneficial for all actors involved. Migrant women can access higher paid jobs, whilst increasing their agency and improving their position in the family and community.

Women’s labour migration can be a crucial source of income for women. 63.9 billion USD were received in remittances in Southeast Asia in 2016. It is estimated that women’s remittances can make up half of this. However, the positive experiences and contributions of women can only be fully ensured if their safety, labour and human rights are fully protected.

I am pleased to say that in Cambodia, the United Nations has worked hand in hand with the Government at national and sub-national levels, as well as with NGOs, in order to respond in a timely way to the pandemic from its onset, putting women and girls at the forefront by:

• Improving the policy framework: women migrant workers are now included in the National Action Plan on Violence Against Women;
• Improving access and continuation of essential services: ranging from labour and job coaching services to safe spaces and psychosocial support for GBV survivors among returning migrants;
• Supporting government services, including Migrant Resource Centres and helplines to provide more regular online supervision to ensure the functioning of multi-sectoral response to VAW survivors, including women migrant workers.

While progress has been made, more needs to be done as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, including ensuring a whole-of-government, a whole-of-society approach and strengthening coordination across diverse stakeholders.

As I mentioned, the situation at the Cambodian borders is serious. We are expecting 50,000 migrant workers crossing the border from Thailand on August 13th. This has implications for immediate needs, reintegration into the community, and alternative livelihoods to mitigate the risk of trafficking. The Royal Government of Cambodia has prioritized health and protection of returning Cambodian migrant workers from Cambodia and the communities in the current response to the pandemic.

Now is the time to improve the long-term response to COVID-19 – focusing on system-strengthening.

How can we build on the Safe and Fair progress so far to improve the system and link with on-going pandemic response efforts? How can we harness synergies with other initiatives and foster partnerships to maximise results? How can we adapt to remain agile and respond to the evolving needs of the most vulnerable?

1. Strengthen the coordination and leadership of the co-chairs to lead the Safe and Fair Project Advisory Committee together with civil society engagement. This also includes enhancing coordination with and among line ministries and other UN projects such as the joint programme on migration. This would enhance the operation of the Safe and Fair initiative to address multiple forms of structural barriers that continue to discriminate against women migrant workers.
2. Ensure that GBV services are seen as essential services during the COVID-19 outbreak, and that migrant women and girls have equal access to these services. Everyone has the right to health care services, including reproductive health care, and social security. It needs to be in the ‘spotlight’ while Cambodia continues to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Enhance the understanding of the complexities of women migrant’s experiences in the migration journey. Structures and systems of labour migration should be improved to ensure safety of migrant workers, guaranteeing that documented and undocumented migrant workers are protected.

These recommendations are in line with the Government’s ASEAN priorities which includes a focus on migrant workers and health.

All stakeholders in our virtual room today have significant roles to play to make migration safe and fair.

Together we can ensure that women migrants are informed, empowered, and are provided with legal and other forms of GBV services.

I appreciate the collaboration among UN agencies in this programme, and I thank the EU for their leadership and commitment to address the issue of gender and labour migration, including their generous support through 25 million euros to SAF which is part of a 500 million euros global investment.

I look forward to continuing engagement with the national project advisory committee and constructive deliberations this morning. I also convey my apologies in advance as I would need to leave the meeting early due to overlapping commitments.

Thank you.