On this International Labour Day, the Global Migrant Workers Network honors the strength, courage, and contributions of all migrant workers. Together, we urge governments, employers, international agencies, and civil society organizations to take bold and urgent action to:
- Eliminate all recruitment fees and implement free, fair, ethical, and gender-responsive recruitment processes.
- Establish and enforce non-discriminatory minimum wages for all migrant workers, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, language, or nationality.
- Ensure safe, decent, and dignified working and living conditions for all migrants.
- Provide full access to social protection and healthcare for all migrant workers.
- Guarantee the freedom of association, expression, and movement.
- Abolish tied visa systems, such as the Kafala system, in all their forms and uphold the full human and labor rights of migrant workers.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) have been prominent major labor destinations for millions of migrant workers from South and East Asia—including Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines—and African countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Ghana, and Nigeria. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Arab States alone hosted over 24.1 million migrant workers in 2019.
Fueled by poverty, unemployment, conflict, and political instability at home, many migrants are pulled into the Gulf region by promises of job security, modern infrastructure, and economic opportunity. Migrant workers are the pillars of socio-economic development in sending and receiving countries, yet their contributions remain largely unrecognized and ignored in policy and development discourse. Instead, they are too often defined by their vulnerabilities and treated as services and commodities.
In the GCC, most migrant workers are employed in low-income, high-risk sectors such as construction, care and domestic work, hospitality, retail, and security. They endure long working hours, appalling housing, and abusive practices such as wage theft, passport confiscation, contract substitution, and denial of legal rights. Care and domestic workers, predominantly women, face double vulnerabilities due to their isolation in private homes and lack of formal labor protections, further exacerbating gendered exploitation.
Migrant workers enter the GCC through the Kafala system, a sponsorship-based system that grants significant control over migrant workers to employers. This power imbalance restricts workers’ rights and limits their freedom of movement, association, assembly, expression, and speech. Employers often abuse their power with impunity: confiscating passports, preventing workers from changing jobs, and filing false criminal complaints against workers to avoid legal obligations owed to workers, such as buying them a plane ticket home. Excessive fees for legal documentation, the inability for workers to change employers without written permission from their sponsor, and some countries requiring exit permits before allowing departure are some of the many barriers preventing workers from leaving abusive employers. These issues are prevalent throughout the GCC, where migrant workers often encounter racism, racial and systemic discrimination, marginalization, and social alienation.
Exploitation begins even before migrants reach their destinations. In their home countries, many are deceived by false promises of prosperity and burdened with exorbitant recruitment fees charged by recruitment agencies, agents, and sub-agents. To afford these costs, workers often take out high-interest loans, pushing them into debt bondage and increasing their vulnerability to forced labor in destination countries.
Migrant workers and survivors of forced labor and human trafficking who make up the leadership at the Global Migrant Workers Network understand the problem at hand and recognize the resilience and potential of migrant workers better than anyone else.
In solidarity, we reject migrant workers being seen as voiceless victims. Instead, we speak, rise, resist, and thrive for our shared dignity.
Signatories
The Global Migrant Workers Network
With members of the Network, including:
Pst. George Muturi, Bahrain Kenyan Society
On this Labour Day, we raise our voices—not in protest, but in dignity. As migrant workers, we leave our homes, our families, and our familiar lands to contribute to the growth and success of other nations. Our hands build, serve, and sustain economies far from home. Yet, in the midst of our sacrifice, we humbly ask that our rights be respected. Fair treatment, safe working conditions, just wages, and human dignity are not privileges, but basic rights for every worker. Labour without justice is exploitation. Work without respect is oppression. Today, we don’t just celebrate our labour call for recognition, protection, and equality. May this day awaken compassion, justice, and reform for all who toil in silence.
Indrani Mendis, Migrant Worker-Survivor Leader
Through our GMWN leadership, we will raise our voices to the world to find lasting solutions for fundamental problems for all migrant workers and join together to provide protection.
Sherrynorth L. Attakora, Migrant Worker-Survivor Leader
A single day of action holds more power than endless dreams of tomorrow.
Mandla Masuku, President Migrant Workers Union of South Africa (MIWUSA)
On this Workers’ Day, we call on the Southern African governments, particularly the South African government, to protect migrant workers, refugees, and vulnerable groups like farm and domestic workers from xenophobia and exploitation. Every worker, regardless of status, deserves dignity, justice, and equal protection under the law.
Manfred Mosaka, Migrant Worker-Survivor Leader
Remembering where I come from and those who will benefit from my efforts gives me even more reason to persevere—to keep fighting for the rights and dignity of migrant workers.
Ndagire Jonita, Mwagale Foundation
Migrant workers and returnees/survivors contribute so much to the economies of sending countries. It is therefore JUST that sending countries consider protecting their people while working and on their return. While signing the Bilateral agreements, sending countries should consider the security, rights and lives of their citizens other than just signing with the excuse of expanding employment.
Abubakar Umar Faruq, African Diaspora Association
Migrant workers are the silent architects of progress, building bridges between cultures and economies with their resilience and hard work.
Bhim Shrestha, Shramik Sanjal
Together we rise to resist injustice and exploitation, standing strong for the dignity and rights of all migrant workers.