UN Women Myanmar holds the first National Multi-stakeholder Consultation on the Gender Dimensions of International Migration

Yangon, Myanmar - UN Women Myanmar hosted the first National Multi-stakeholder Consultation on the Gender Dimensions of International Migration on 25 March in Yangon, Myanmar attended by 40 participants including representatives from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MOLESS), the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation (MOEAF), Civil Society Organisations working on migration, Women Migrant Workers and ILO.

Photo: UN Women Myanmar

The consultation sought to enhance understanding of the rights violations women and men migrant workers face throughout the migration process and their contributions to development. Moreover the consultation focused on eliciting feedback from women migrant workers, in particular, to the 1999 Overseas Employment Act that government is currently amending.

“Migration is one of government’s national priorities”, says Khin Nway Oo, Director, Migration Division, (MOLESS), and an important initiative are amendments that Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security is undertaking in relation to the Overseas Employment Act 1999. With an increasing number of women migrating for jobs out of Myanmar, this consultation is an important opportunity to learn from women what amendments they would like in the new law”

Soe Soe New, representative of the Tavoyan Women’s Union and former migrant worker in Thailand, said that the 1999 Law must be revised to include provisions that enable legal migration as the majority of irregular migrants tend to be women. Also it must have provisions that protect women at all stages of migration. The consultation provides us a chance to share our direct experiences of migration and the law because women’s experiences must be put into the law.

Photo: UN Women Myanmar

Mar Mar Oo, from 88 Generation, underlined how the Consultation has paved the way for future cooperation between women migrants and government institutions to guarantee women migrants better protection.

Among the recommendations for incorporation were the need to create enabling conditions for legal migration such as simplified procedures, reducing the costs of migration, decentralizing the locales to obtain travel documents, community awareness raising on the risks and benefits of migration and how to avail of legal channels, rights-based pre departure trainings for women that include information on legislation and services in destination countries and how to protect oneself; regulations for recruiting agencies that include incentives and sanctions; blacklisting unscrupulous recruiting agencies and promoting professional ones; responsibility of recruiting agencies to compensate workers for non payment of wages and abuse; more accessible complaint mechanisms in case of violence against women workers and comprehensive reintegration services, especially for women who have suffered abuse on the workplace; bilateral and multi-lateral MOUS between countries of origin and destination protecting women.

Congratulating participants in her final remarks for “a forceful, dynamic and forward-looking session”, Dr. Jean D’Cunha, Senior Gender Advisor to the RC and Focal Point for UN Women Myanmar emphasized the need to ensure that the law and all our work is genuinely tailored to address the differences in the experience of men and of women workers throughout migration and encouraged multi-sectoral partnerships based on complementarity for greater impact.

The Consultation is part of UN Women’s Regional Programme on Empowering Women Migrant Workers in Asia funded by the Swiss Development Cooperation.

For more information contact

Montira Narkvichien
Regional Communications Specialist
UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Tel: +66 2 288 1579 Fax: +66 2 280 6030
E-mail: montira.narkvichien@unwomen.org