The document discusses the importance of the UN's International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICMW) and highlights the distinct statuses of refugees and expatriates. It emphasizes the significant economic contributions of migrant workers and the need for better protection of their rights, especially in host countries unwilling to ratify the convention. The author advocates for countries like Bangladesh to promote ICMW and establish agreements to safeguard the rights of their citizens abroad.

1. https://dailyasianage.com/news/140249/promoting-un-convention-to-protect-rights-of-migrants
EDEN BUILDING TO STOCK EXCHANGE
16 September 2018
Promoting UN Convention to protect rights of migrants
M S Siddiqui
Afghan migrants protest conditions in
hospitality centre in Malakasa, Greece 08 June 2016. Photo: OHCHR
The poor people of poorer countries move to other country for livelihood and shelter. Some are in search
of better socio-economic perspectives and seek to work abroad. The usually migrate to other country
through official and some un-official channels. Some of the citizen forced to leave own country and
become refugee in other country.
They flee due to war, civil strife, ethnic conflict, violations of human rights or other situations of this kind.
The status of refugee and expatriate are not same status. Refugee is who forcefully leave own country for
various man-made or natural disasters and expatriate is living in other countries for employment.
The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families (ICMW), 1990 by the UN in article 2(1) defines a migrant worker as 'a person who is to be
engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a
national'.
The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugee Convention) of 1951 defines refugee as
any person who is "outside their country of origin and unable or unwilling to return there or to avail
themselves of its protection, on account of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular group, or political opinion."

2. There are about 10 million migrant working in different countries especially in ME. According to latest data
released by the Bangladesh Bank, the expatriates remitted $14.98 billion in the 2017-18. According to
United Nations figures, there are approximately 200 million international migrants in the world.
This is barely 3 percent of the world population. Migrants contribute annually an estimated USD 2 trillion
to the economies of the countries in which they work.
Remittances of Bangladeshi migrant contribute around 11 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP).
The remittances provide significant support to the balance of payments and also help stimulate the
economy and alleviate poverty. Bangladesh has concern of migrant workers since they have a very
important role to play in our socio-economic development.
The host countries may have reasons to welcome migrants as well. These labor are required because of
shortages in the labor force and of native workers' reluctance to perform specific jobs: this particularly
concerns the so-called '3D (dirty, demanding and dangerous) jobs', such as those in the building sector or
in domestic services, which are often performed by migrants throughout the world.
The working condition, wages etc are not favorable for migrant workers in other countries. There are
global concerns of the situation and UN and other human right organizations are working to improve the
employment process and working condition of migrant workers.
Although human flows has always been a concern of the international community and of UN agencies. At
present the international legal framework for the protection of human rights of migrants is very broad. The
International Labour Organization (ILO) has elaborated two Conventions that aim at protecting migrant
workers: Convention 97 (1949) and Convention 143 (1975).
Moreover, a number of international treaties contain provisions that protect the human rights of all human
beings, irrespective of their citizenship. These include the six main human rights treaties adopted by the
United Nations from 1965 to 1989, as well as the founding document which served as a matrix for those:
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948.
These human rights treaties are: (a) The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (ICERD, adopted in 1965); (b) The International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966); (c) The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR,
1966); (d) The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW,
1979); (e) The Convention against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment(CAT, 1984); and (f) The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989).
The landmark convention of UN is the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICMW) was adopted in 1990 by the United Nations and
on 1 July 2003 it has entered into force, after the threshold of 20 ratifying States was reached in March
2003. Bangladesh has signed the convention in 1998.
Unfortunately, only 51 States have ratified it and, most notably, no important Western destination and
Middle Eastern country has done so.

3. The interest in migration was thus motivated by the objective of this UN Charter is to increase labor
standards and to lessen the downward pressure that results from competition between national and
foreign workers; protecting rights of migrant and local workers'. It has recognized all the categories of
migrants - irregular migrants, trafficked migrants, migrant women.
At the same time, the emphasis on human rights and not solely labor rights is crucial in terms of the
protection of migrants who are not active on the labor market or whose presence is only partly related to
their working capacity. The ICMW also has given emphasis on rights of the 'members of the families' of
migrant workers and also rights of the illegal migrants.
The Convention recognizes that legal migrants have the legitimacy to claim more rights than
undocumented migrants, but it stresses that undocumented migrants must see their fundamental human
rights respected, like all human beings.
It relies on the fundamental notion that all migrants should have access to a minimum degree of
protection. ICMW also codifies some new rights specific to the condition of migrants such as the right to
transfer remittances or to have access to information on the remittance process.
The Convention does not create new rights for migrants but aims at guaranteeing equality of treatment,
and the same working conditions for migrants and nationals.
Finally, the Convention establishes a treaty monitoring body, made up of 10 independent experts "of high
moral standing, impartiality and recognized competence in the field covered by the Convention" (Art. 72).
This Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) shall examine the initial and periodic reports submitted by
each State Party.
The Convention explicitly refers to the possibility for the Committee to "invite the specialized agencies and
organs of the UN, as well as intergovernmental organizations and other concerned bodies to submit
written information" (Art.74). In its deliberations, it can thus consider comments and materials provided by
the International Labour Organization (Art. 74).
Most of the countries in ME are reluctant to ratify the Convention because they consider that it gives too
many rights to migrants. The Convention incorporates migrant workers' families, thus recommending the
facilitation of family reunifications. This means increase of the number of migrants in to their country. They
only prefer the productive migrant workers, rather than on their dependents.
Their major concern is on right to be given to undocumented migrants while they are concerned of
presence of un-recorded and undocumented migrants on security and other grounds. Several countries
are afraid that granting more rights to migrants would make their country more attractive for irregular
migrants.
The rights and privileges given to migrant workers are widely criticized and questionable. Upon the
ratification of the ICMW, the states would be subject to an examination of the way they implement it. This

4. could lead to embarrassing situations in which their shortcomings in terms of human rights would be
highlighted at the international level.
ICMW is for more liberal immigration policies. It does not propose any new set of rights that would be
specific to migrants. It only ensures that human rights are properly applied to migrant workers.
Bangladesh and other countries should promote ICMW in ME countries to protect the rights of
immigrants. It can sign mutual agreement with host countries to protect human rights of migrants and also
more vigilance through Embassies in ME and other agencies to protect the citizens working in other
countries.
The writer is a legal economist.
Email: mssiddiqui2035@gmail.com