Country of origin complaints mechanisms for overseas migrants from Myanmar

This Briefing Paper is the first in a series of Briefing papers providing technical input on particular migration issues being produced by the ILO Yangon supported by Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT). The briefing paper provides the international legal framework and guidelines governing complaints or grievance mechanisms for migrants. It analyses different mechanisms currently available to Myanmar migrants including the government complaints mechanism, embassies, Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation (MOEAF), Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, ILO Forced Labour complaints mechanism and civil society organisations and labour organisations support services. It provides examples of good practices from other countries of origin.

Finally the paper proposes a set of policy recommendations to extend and improve complaints mechanisms for migrants. The Annex includes relevant treaties, examples of laws and structures from other countries, a tabulated breakdown of lessons learnt and samples of complaints forms. Other Briefing papers in this series to support the development of improved labour migration governance in Myanmar will include Recruitment, Social Protection and Policy Cohesion.