Labour exploitation of migrants 2014, para. 37
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- Article 21 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families provides that States parties should ensure that employers and recruiters do not confiscate or destroy travel or identity documents belonging to migrant workers. However, the Special Rapporteur has met with many migrants who have had their passports or other identity documents confiscated by their employers. Even when the law strictly prohibits the confiscation of documents, the Special Rapporteur has seen this happen systematically, particularly in respect of workers considered "low-skilled", including domestic workers and construction workers. Employers who have paid recruitment fees frequently see the migrants working for them as an economic investment, and therefore try to prevent them from leaving, inter alia by confiscating their passports. The confiscation of passports is routinely used as a tool to trap migrants in exploitative jobs, forcing them to perform work they would not agree to otherwise. This practice reinforces isolation and dependence and restricts the freedom of movement of the migrant out of the place of work and residence, as well as out of the country.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2014
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Paragraph number
- 37
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