EU-UN Initiative Aims to Protect Women Migrant Workers and Children

 

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New Initiative Aims to Strengthen Protections for Vulnerable Migrant Groups in Southeast Asia

The European Union and United Nations have launched a project called Protect to improve the rights and welfare of women migrant workers and children across Southeast Asia. Funded with €13 million, the initiative will run for three years in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. It builds on past successful EU-funded efforts to promote migrant rights in ASEAN nations.

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Migrant laborers in Southeast Asia, especially women and children, face numerous challenges that leave them vulnerable. Women migrants often work informally with little job security or social protection. Accompanying children are at high risk of various abuses due to limited child protection services.

Protect seeks to promote decent work and reduce vulnerabilities through strengthening labor laws, policies, and systems. It will leverage lessons from prior projects to better ensure rights, prevent gender-based violence, combat trafficking, and expand access to important resources.

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Four UN agencies — ILO, UN Women, UNODC, and UNICEF — will drive implementation in coordination with local stakeholders. To develop safer workplaces, private sector engagement in human rights and due diligence is also emphasized, particularly for women in high-risk industries. Civil society has an important advocacy role to play as well.

In comments, UN representatives stressed the need to safeguard vulnerable migrant groups to enrich ASEAN societies through sustainable growth. The EU-UN initiative represents a significant step towards building safer, rights-based migration systems across the region through reduced exploitation of millions of worker households.