18/12/2025
Network for the Protection of Women Migrants' Rights Statement in Commemoration of International Migrants Day 2025
An Urgent Appeal to States and stakeholders to Support and Protect the Rights of Women Migrant Workers and Ensure Their Access to Justice
Solidarity Greetings!
Women migrant workers in the Asia-Pacific mainly work as domestic workers, nannies, and caregivers, along with jobs in the service sector, including entertainment and restaurants. They often encounter tough situations, such as long hours, low pay, isolation, working in employers' homes, and poor conditions without a paid day off in a week.
Many women migrant workers experience physical, psychological, sexual, and verbal violence from employers or others. They are often exploited by recruitment agents or employers, who confiscate important documents and force them to work without adequate wages or with significant deductions from their wages. Women migrant workers have limited access to health services, including reproductive health, education, and other rights. They are often isolated from their communities and families, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and violence. Furthermore, many migrant women fall victim to scams or human trafficking and are then trapped in forced labor.
Amidst these situations, migrant women often lack adequate rights and access to justice. They experience obstacles due to a lack of information and limited knowledge of laws and rights, language barriers, fear of deportation or retaliation, lack of legal protection and access to legal aid and representation, and cultural and social norms that perpetuate inequality. This demonstrates a lack of protection and of services available to migrants, especially women migrants.
On International Migrants Day 2025, Network for the Protection of Women Migrants' Rights (NPWMR) calls on governments in both origin and destination countries to protect and ensure women migrants’ rights and access to justice. We call on governments to address systematic barriers and harmful policies that undermine the fundamental rights and labor protection of migrants, especially women. Ensuring the human rights of migrants involves strong commitment and willpower from governments to implement policies that promote decent working conditions, fair treatment and opportunities, access to public services and legal and social protections at the workplace.
With increased prominence of right-wing politics, it is also critical to address issues like racism, xenophobia and gender discrimination because these systemic inequalities put migrants, particularly women, at risk of exploitation and criminalisation. We urge governments to take decisive action to safeguard the rights and dignity of all migrants.
Leveraging international instruments on migration and other human rights treaties, all migrant workers who face labor rights violations, including forced labor or human trafficking, should have access to effective remedies, such as compensation, regardless of their status or the type of employment they hold. This support should not depend on their willingness to cooperate in criminal and other legal cases. However, these services often lack enough resources and proper training to meet the needs of migrants. Thus, there is a need to channel sufficient resources to fund services for migrants and the communities that support them.
NPWMR invites all organizations and networks to work together in ensuring women migrants' rights and access to justice through advocacy and campaigns and solidarity. NPWMR stands with migrant women in fighting for, defending, and promoting the rights of women migrants.
The Network for the Protection of Women Migrants' Rights (NPWMR) is issuing this statement in commemoration of International Migrants Day 2025. NPWMR is a regional network of regional organizations and alliances focused on the issue of women migrants. NPWMR works closely with national and sub-regional organizations and alliances in advocating and campaigning for women migrants' issues and demands. Members of the NPWMR are Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM Asia), Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) Asia Pacific, International Women’s Alliance (IWA) Asia Pacific, Migrante International and GABRIELA Philippines.
