Source: The Malaysian Outsider

Migrant workers staying in cramped quarters in Malaysia. The UN says if migrant labour is given benefits and social protections, it will boost the economies of the host countries. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, March 1, 2016.
Governments must provide migrant labour with the same benefits and social protections they give their own citizens, which will boost their economies and worker productivity, a United Nations official said.
Of the estimated 232 million migrants in the world in 2013, more than 95 million are from the Asia Pacific region, according to the UN’s Asia Pacific Migration Report 2015 launched this week in Bangkok.
Migrants contribute significantly to GDP growth in host countries, while sending home about US$435 billion (RM1.8 billion) in remittances to the Asia Pacific region in 2015, said Hongjoo Hahm, deputy executive secretary of the UN’s development arm for Asia and the Pacific.
Yet many face abuses at every step of the way, from recruitment agencies and job brokers at home to exploitative employers, officials and police abroad.
It is the responsibility of governments in the countries that send and receive migrants to have domestic, regional and inter-country discussions to create the policies and conditions necessary for safe migration, Hahm said. Read more