Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farmworker women and girls in the United Statesface a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their workplaces because US authorities and employers fail to protect them adequately, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

As dusk settles over the isolated Saharan town Kufra, young guards order a few hundred migrants lined up at a detention centre to chant "Libya free, Chadians out", before they kneel down for evening prayers.

Most of the prisoners in the small, squalid compound called the Freedom Detention Centre - run by Kufra’s military council - are from Chad. Hundreds more, from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, were moved to bigger facilities due to overcrowding. 

Migrant workers have played a central part in the economic success story of many South-East Asian countries in recent years. As these countries have embraced the ‘outwards turn’ of export orientation, migrant workers have provided a regular source of cheap labour that has allowed their manufacturing industries to compete successfully on world markets. 

The fifth WSFM will carry the theme “Mobility, Rights and Global Models: Looking for Alternatives.” The Forum aims to strengthen the process, protest movements and organizations around the world fighting for integration and full exercise of rights of men, women, youth, children and girls who migrate after the hope of a dignified and just under one full human development.

This issue brief, the first in a series launched by MPI and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) that examines migration trends and issues in Asia, discusses labor migration from the 11 Colombo Process countries (which include China, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam). Since 2005, these countries have taken concrete steps to manage these labor flows and protect their citizens working abroad, particularly with respect to recruitment regulation and welfare protection.

A proposed United Arab Emirates (UAE) law on domestic workers holds promise for significant improvements in addressing worker abuse, Human Rights Watch said today. While a newspaper has reported about the law, its contents have not been made public, and a number of the reported provisions raise concerns.