Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
List of issues prior to submission of the second periodic report of Seychelles *
Section I
A.General information
1.Please provide information on the domestic legal framework regarding the Convention, including the following:
(a)Laws regarding the protection of migrant workers and members of their families and on migration policies under the Convention adopted since the Committee’s previous concluding observations, in 2015, in particular in relation to any draft laws or legislation governing Seychellois migrant workers and members of their families living abroad;
(b)Measures taken by the State party to ensure that its legislation and policies are in line with the provisions of the Convention, including the Immigration Decree of 1981, as amended, in particular as regards the definition of “prohibited immigrants” in section 19 of the decree; the Seychelles National Labour Migration Policy of 2019; the National Labour Migration Action Plan 2020–2024; and the National Development Strategy 2019–2023 (para. 9);
(c)The nature and scope of bilateral and multilateral agreements concluded with other countries pertaining to the rights of migrant workers, including domestic migrant workers, and members of their families under the Convention, in particular with the member States of the Southern African Development Community and of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka (para. 33 (b)), specifying the cooperation arrangements in place with States that are not yet parties to the Convention, and provide an update on their implementation status. Please specify how such agreements protect migrant workers’ rights in transit and destination countries, especially with respect to social security, detention, repatriation or expulsion and family reunification procedures. Please provide information on any measures taken to strengthen the protection of Seychellois migrant workers abroad and of migrant workers in Seychelles, including by reviewing and seeking amendments to those bilateral and multilateral agreements.
2.Please provide information on all policies and strategies relating to the rights of migrant workers and members of their families adopted by the State party, including the National Labour Migration Action Plan 2020–2024 and the National Labour Migration Policy and those developed and coordinated under the auspices of the Migration Dialogue from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Member States and of the Migration Dialogue for the Indian Ocean Commission Countries. Please include information on specific, time-bound and measurable goals and targets to effectively monitor progress in the implementation of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families in the State party and provide information on the human, technical and financial resources allocated thereto.
3.Please provide information on the management of migration, including the government ministries and institutions responsible for intergovernmental coordination on the implementation of the Convention, such as the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs and its Labour Migration Division; the Department of Foreign Affairs and Tourism; and the Immigration and Civil Status Department. Please inform the Committee of the available human, technical and financial resources of such ministries and institutions and on the results obtained, including through monitoring activities and follow-up procedures, in promoting, protecting and fulfilling the rights of migrant workers and members of their families under the Convention.
4.Please provide qualitative information and statistical data, including from the National Bureau of Statistics, for the period since the adoption of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, disaggregated by sex, age, nationality, disability, field of occupation and migration status, on labour migration movements to and from the State party, including returns and other labour migration-related issues, especially on circular migration, including under the Memorandum of Understanding for Facilitation of Movement of Business Persons and Professionals between Accelerated Programme for Economic Integration Countries, and on unaccompanied migrant children and children left behind by migrant parents. Please also provide qualitative and statistical data or, if precise data are not available, studies or estimates, on migrant workers in an irregular situation in the State party and abroad, in particular those working in less regulated sectors, such as fishing and agriculture and domestic service. In addition, please provide information on measures taken by the State party to establish a coherent and comparable system of data collection on those issues, including measures aimed at making the information public (para. 15).
5.Please indicate the steps taken to strengthen the Seychelles Human Rights Commission and to ensure compliance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles). In particular, please elaborate on its mandate to independently monitor the human rights situation within the State party, including the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families under the Convention (para. 19).
6.Please provide information on the steps taken to promote and raise awareness of the Convention and the applicable legislative and regulatory framework, including through coordination with federal, state and municipal authorities, among the general public, migrant workers and members of their families, employers, teachers, health and social workers, labour inspectors, government officials, including embassy and consular personnel, law enforcement officials and border police and members of the judiciary, civil society and the media.
7.Please describe measures taken to develop and implement systematic and regular training programmes on the human rights of migrant workers and members of their families, including training programmes that incorporate gender, age, disability and diversity perspectives, for government officials providing legal and consular assistance to nationals of the State party abroad who are confronting migration-related issues, including trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, discrimination, workplace abuse and exploitation, arrest, pretrial detention, immigration-related detention, imprisonment, expulsion and repatriation (paras. 7, 17 (a) and 37 (c)).
8.Please provide information on the cooperation and interaction between the State party and international organizations, civil society organizations, in particular migrants’ organizations, and other stakeholders working on migrant workers’ rights in relation to the implementation of the Convention, including in the preparation of the replies to the queries raised in the list of issues prior to reporting (paras. 17 (c), 39, 41 and 45).
9.Please provide information on efforts to license, regulate and monitor private employment agencies in the State party that recruit migrant workers to work abroad and the laws, rules and regulations pertaining to private recruitment, in particular on:
(a)Measures taken to provide information and training to migrant workers on their rights and obligations and to protect them from abusive employment situations;
(b)The role and responsibilities of recruitment agencies and their joint responsibility with the foreign employer for claims and liabilities that may arise in connection with the implementation of the employment contract covering wages, disability compensation, repatriation and death, including the repatriation of the bodies of deceased migrant workers;
(c)Whether recruitment agencies provide life, disability or workers’ compensation insurance to migrant workers for work-related injuries and death;
(d)The issuance and renewal of licences of recruitment agencies;
(e)Complaints lodged against recruitment agencies, labour inspections conducted and penalties and sanctions imposed in cases of non-compliance with the law;
(f)Measures taken by the State party to strengthen mechanisms to regulate and control private employment agencies, including pursuant to the National Labour Migration Policy, and to avoid situations in which such agencies act as intermediaries for abusive foreign recruiters;
(g)Progress made with a view to ratification of the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) (para. 13).
B.Information requested, by article of the Convention
1.General principles
10.Please explain the status of the Convention in the hierarchy of norms within the State party and indicate whether the provisions of the Convention have been directly applied by officials in the administration. Please provide information on and examples of judicial cases and judgments in which the Convention has been invoked directly before the courts. Please also provide information on:
(a)The judicial and administrative mechanisms competent to examine and decide on complaints by migrant workers and members of their families, including those in an irregular situation, in particular domestic migrant workers;
(b)The number and type of complaints examined by such mechanisms and their outcome since the adoption of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, disaggregated by sex, age, nationality, disability, field of occupation and migration status;
(c)Whether legal assistance was provided to migrant workers and members of their families in Seychelles and to Seychellois nationals who are living as migrants abroad;
(d)Any redress, including compensation, provided to the victims of rights violations under the Convention;
(e)Measures taken to inform migrant workers and members of their families about their rights to due process and access to justice and remedies available to them for violations of their rights, in a language that they understand (para. 30).
11.Please provide information on restrictions placed on the full exercise of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families in the face of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, including restrictive measures taken at the State party’s international borders in relation to their entry or exit from their countries of origin, transit or destination. Please also provide information on measures taken in relation to voluntary return to their countries of origin in the context of the pandemic. Please indicate measures taken to ensure that the pandemic does not affect the process of asylum applications or migration procedures, including in relation to the suspension of procedures. Please indicate efforts taken on behalf of migrant workers and members of their families:
(a)To include them in national pandemic prevention and response plans, especially in relation to ensuring access to a vaccine on a non-discriminatory basis, regardless of their nationality and migration status and on an equal basis with nationals, in view of the joint guidance note of the Committee and other international and regional human rights mechanisms on equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all migrants;
(b)To ensure their access to health-care services;
(c)To uphold the necessary sanitary measures to prevent contagion and maintain the desired level of health protection at their workplaces;
(d)To ensure that families of migrant workers who have died of the disease are informed of their deaths and receive their remains;
(e)To protect their rights in other respects and mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic, in view of the joint guidance note of the Committee and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the human rights of migrants.
2.Part II of the Convention
Article 7
12.Please clarify the ways in which national legislation, in particular the Constitution, and its implementation guarantee that all migrant workers and members of their families enjoy the rights provided for in articles 1 (1) and 7 of the Convention, without distinction of any kind, in particular on grounds of nationality, migration or documentation status, statelessness or type and length of residence, and provide relevant specific examples. Please also provide information on whether such legislation covers all the prohibited grounds of discrimination, including sex, age, gender identity and sexual orientation, disability, language, national, ethnic or social origin, nationality, economic position, property, marital status and birth or other status.
13.Please indicate measures taken to review the State party’s legislation in order to repeal all provisions that are discriminatory against migrant workers and members of their families and those taken to adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation. Please also provide information on measures taken to ensure non-discrimination and to combat discrimination, xenophobia and stigmatization, including quantitative and qualitative information on the types of cases based on discrimination and xenophobia identified in the State party. Please specify the mechanisms in place for assessing the individual situations of migrants in transit and for determining, without discrimination, their protection needs in accordance with international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law.
14.Please provide information on measures taken to mitigate the impact of climate change, including such natural disasters as cyclones, and environmental degradation on the human rights of migrants and to contribute to climate justice. Please include information on the measures taken to involve the Seychelles Human Rights Commission and civil society organizations, including migrants’ organizations, to raise awareness about racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in relation to the impact of climate change in the context of migration, including by identifying specific, time-bound and measurable goals and targets to serve as an early-warning mechanism to highlight the interlinkages between violations of the human rights of migrants and discrimination, inequalities and climate change.
3.Part III of the Convention
Articles 8 to 15
15.Please provide information on any cases identified in the State party of the exploitation of migrant workers and members of their families, in both regular and irregular situations, in particular those working in the economic sectors of transport and tourism, fishing and agriculture, construction, manufacturing and services, including domestic work (para. 21 (a)). Please also provide information on any cases of domestic servitude, forced labour or sexual exploitation involving migrant workers, especially in the context of travel and tourism, and on measures to prevent and combat those phenomena (para. 37 (b)). Please indicate the measures taken to bring national legislation into compliance with the ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the ILO Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105), in particular on any plans to adopt legislation specifically protecting migrant workers from labour exploitation, and to ratify or accede to the ILO Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129) to facilitate labour inspections in the agricultural sector.
16.Please provide information on measures taken to ensure the rights of migrant children, in particular those who are unaccompanied or in an irregular situation, and on measures taken to ensure that they are protected from all forms of exploitation. Please indicate legislative measures for the implementation of the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) that have been taken or are envisaged to protect children against the worst forms of labour and to strengthen the labour inspection system (para. 35).
Articles 16 to 22
17.Please clarify whether the immigration-related offences enumerated in section 27 (2) of the Immigration Decree of 1981 amount to criminal or administrative offences, and describe the due process safeguards, including access to a lawyer and an interpreter, in situations of investigation, arrest, detention or expulsion of migrant workers and members of their families for immigration-related offences, including after expulsion has occurred. Please describe measures taken to ensure that the obligation contained in article 16 (7) of the Convention on contact with consular or diplomatic authorities of the State of origin of the detained migrant worker or their family member is given effect in law and in practice. Please include information on legal safeguards and due process, including legal assistance and interpretation, as necessary, and access to information in a language the migrant worker or their family member understands and specific due process safeguards for unaccompanied children in migration-related administration procedures, including the right to be heard and the right to a guardian.
18.Please provide information on border governance measures, including search and rescue missions for migrants missing at sea, since the adoption of the previous concluding observations, in particular in view of the territory of the State party being a large archipelago, and with respect to protection from violence or threats of violence; procedures applicable to migrant workers and asylum-seekers arriving at the international borders of the State party, including those with disabilities, and with respect to their placement in reception facilities; and how the State party processes protection claims to ensure that it acts in accordance with the Convention and the general comments of the Committee. Please provide information on how the State party guarantees that asylum applications made by migrant workers and members of their families, independent of their migration status, are registered in due time, that they are duly assessed and that the right to appeal is upheld. Please inform the Committee about how the State party processes protection claims to ensure that it acts in accordance with the principle of non-refoulement and the prohibition of arbitrary and collective expulsion.
19.Please provide information on efforts to ensure that the detention of migrant workers and members of their families for violations of immigration laws is applied only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible period of time, in particular in view of the fact that immigration detainees are being treated as persons awaiting trial pursuant to section 24 (3) of the Immigration Decree of 1981. Please also provide information on efforts to suspend detention for immigration-related matters and adopt alternatives to immigration detention, including statistical data disaggregated by relevant factors, in particular for migrant children and their families. Please also provide information on immigration detention centres, including, but not limited to, prisons, the immigration detention centre at the Seychelles International Airport in Victoria, and any other place where facilities exist for the detention of persons (section 24 (2) of the decree) and on the conditions of detention and statistical data, disaggregated by relevant factors, on migrant workers and their families, including unaccompanied migrant children, held in immigration detention centres. Please also inform the Committee whether the State party subcontracts the management or security of immigration detention centres to private enterprises and, if so, about the safeguards to hold private security personnel in such facilities accountable for potential abuses and human rights violations.
20.Please provide information on safeguards in place to ensure that, in immigration-related proceedings, including expulsion proceedings, migrant workers and members of their families, in particular those in an irregular situation, are provided with due process, that they are only expelled from the territory of the State party pursuant to a decision taken by a competent authority and following a procedure established by law and in conformity with the Convention, that decisions in that respect can be reviewed on appeal and that remedies have a suspensive effect, including, but not limited to, in proceedings pursuant to the Immigration Decree of 1981, and before courts of law. Please also provide information, including statistical data disaggregated by relevant factors, on migrant workers and members of their families who are in an irregular situation and have been or are in the process of being expelled.
21.Please indicate whether collective expulsion is prohibited in the domestic laws of the State party. Please also provide information on measures taken to guarantee the right to family life, in particular the right of migrant children to family life and not to be separated from their parents, in cases where an expulsion order has been issued against the parents or guardians.
Article 23
22.Please provide information, including statistical data disaggregated by relevant factors, on the policies and practices of the State party’s Director General of Protocol, Consular and Diaspora Affairs, embassies, consulates and labour attachés in assisting and protecting Seychellois migrant workers, including those in an irregular situation and domestic migrant workers, in particular in the context of abuse, violence, arrest, detention or expulsion proceedings. Please indicate whether migrant workers and members of their families in the State party have effective access to the protection and assistance of the consular or diplomatic authorities of their State of origin and how foreign migrant workers who are deprived of their liberty are informed of that right, in particular in cases of expulsion.
Articles 25 to 30
23.Please indicate what legal and labour protection and enforcement mechanisms are in place, including within the framework of the Migration Dialogue from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Member States and the Migration Dialogue for the Indian Ocean Commission Countries, to ensure that migrant workers, including migrant women, in particular in the economic sectors of transport and tourism, fishing and agriculture, construction, manufacturing and services, including domestic work as regulated by the Employment (Conditions of Employment of Domestic Workers) Regulations, 2019, enjoy treatment not less favourable than that which applies to nationals in respect of remuneration and conditions of work. Please also include information on measures aimed at promoting the rights of Seychellois migrant workers abroad.
24.Please indicate how national labour laws and regulations relating to remuneration and conditions of work, for example, those relating to overtime, hours of work, weekly rest, holidays with pay, safety, health, termination of work contract and the minimum wage, are in full compliance with the ILO Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) and the ILO Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111). Please describe, in particular, whether the same conditions enjoyed by nationals apply on an equal basis to migrant workers, including domestic migrant workers, in both regular and irregular situations, with nationals of Seychelles. Please provide information on measures taken by the State party to ensure that migrant workers enjoy equality of treatment with nationals in respect of protection from dismissal, unemployment and other social benefits, including in the case of incapacity to work, access to public work schemes for combating unemployment and access to alternative employment and retraining in the event of loss of work or termination of other remunerated activity.
25.Please provide information on measures taken to ensure, in law and in practice, that all children of migrant workers, regardless of their migration status, persons under international protection and stateless persons have access to primary and secondary education on the basis of equality of treatment with nationals of the State party, and on the enrolment rates of those children (para. 35). Please also provide information on how the State party ensures that educational institutions are not obliged to report the migration status of children to the authorities so that migrant parents in an irregular situation send their children to school. Please also provide information on measures taken to ensure that children of migrant workers from Seychelles residing abroad have access to education at all levels, including tertiary and higher education, including pursuant to article 33 of the Constitution.
26.Please provide information on the measures taken by the State party to ensure, in law and in practice, that all migrant workers and members of their families, regardless of their migration status, and stateless persons have adequate access to health-care services, including urgent medical care, pursuant to article 29 of the Constitution, in view of reports that migrant workers and members of their families are not fully eligible as participants and beneficiaries of the national health insurance scheme.
27.Please provide information on the measures taken by the State party to ensure the right of children of Seychellois migrant workers abroad, including children of migrant workers who are undocumented or in an irregular situation, to be registered at birth and to have their nationality recognized in law and in practice. Please also provide information on the measures taken to ensure the birth registration of foreign migrant children in the State party. Please indicate whether the State party has set up clear statelessness determination procedures and eased access to citizenship, and about any plans to ratify or accede to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 1954 and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness of 1961 (para. 27).
Article 32 and 33
28.Please provide information on measures taken by the State party to ensure that upon termination of their stay in the State party, migrant workers and members of their families have the right to transfer their earnings and savings from Seychelles to their State of origin, and, in accordance with applicable legislation, their personal effects and belongings. Please also provide information on measures taken to facilitate the transfer of those funds, in particular to reduce the cost of such transactions (para. 33).
4.Part IV of the Convention
Article 37
29.Please provide information on pre-departure programmes for Seychellois nationals who are considering emigration, including information on their rights and obligations in the State of employment. Please describe the pre-departure training programmes and information campaigns and their impact, including statistical data disaggregated by relevant factors, for potential migrant workers and related activities by private recruitment agencies, as envisaged in the National Labour Migration Policy, and whether any coordinated policies, programmes or legislation have been developed to ensure transparency and accountability in that process.
Article 40
30.Please elaborate on the measures taken, including pursuant to article 23 (1) of the Constitution; the Employment Act, 1995, as amended; and the National Labour Migration Policy, and the results obtained that guarantee to migrant workers and members of their families, irrespective of their migration status, the right to form and to form part of the leadership of associations and trade unions, in accordance with article 40 of the Convention and parts I and II of the ILO Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87).
Article 41
31.Please provide information on the status of implementation of the recommendation in the previous concluding observations (para. 29) to ensure for Seychellois migrant workers and members of their families abroad the right to exercise their voting rights in the State party and participate in public affairs without any restrictions, including the right to be elected to public office, in particular in view of article 114 (1) (c) of the Constitution. Please also inform the Committee as to whether the diaspora engagement policy has been adopted and whether any measures are envisaged to give effect to the rights under article 41 of the Convention.
Article 44
32.Please provide information on measures taken, including pursuant to the Immigration Decree of 1981, in particular in relation to “prohibited immigrants”, to ensure the protection of the unity of the families of migrant workers and to facilitate the reunification of migrant workers with their spouses or persons with whom the migrant worker has a relationship that, according to applicable law, produces effects equivalent to marriage and with their dependent unmarried children, in compliance with the principle of the best interests of the child, including in the context of expulsion procedures (para. 31).
Articles 46 to 48
33.Please provide information on the legislation relating to import and export duties and taxes in respect of personal and household effects and necessary work-related equipment of migrant workers, in particular of departing foreign migrant workers. Please describe the policies in place to enhance the portability of social security and other entitlements and benefits earned by migrant workers and to facilitate remittances. Please also provide information on the bilateral and multilateral agreements concluded in the field of migration, in particular temporary labour programmes and other agreements concerning employment, protection, double taxation and social security (para. 33).
Article 49
34.Please provide information on whether separate authorizations are required to reside in Seychelles and to engage in employment under national legislation and, if so, on whether the authorization of residence for migrant workers is ensured for at least the same period of time as their authorization to engage in remunerated activity. Please elaborate on the various types of work and residence permits in this regard, including pursuant to the Immigration Decree of 1981 and the Employment (Conditions of Employment of Domestic Workers) Regulations, 2019. Please also provide information on measures taken to ensure that migrant workers retain their authorization of residence in the event of termination of their remunerated activity prior to the expiration of their work permit or similar authorization to prevent such workers from falling into an irregular situation.
5.Part V of the Convention
Articles 58 to 63
35.Please provide information on measures taken by the State party to ensure that seasonal workers enjoy the rights to which they are entitled and treatment equal to that of national workers, in particular in respect of remuneration and conditions of work, and to ensure systematic monitoring by the relevant authorities of employers’ compliance with relevant international labour standards.
6.Part VI of the Convention
Article 64
36.Please describe the measures taken by the State party to address the irregular migration of nationals of the State party, including through multilateral and bilateral agreements, policies and programmes aimed at enhancing legal migration channels and at addressing the root causes of irregular migration, including labour migration, such as agreements in this regard, in particular with the member States of the Southern African Development Community and of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and Bangladesh, and potential agreements with Ghana, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka (para. 33 (b)). Please provide information on campaigns aimed at countering misleading information relating to irregular migration and raising awareness among Seychellois nationals of the risks and dangers of irregular migration and on measures taken to assist returning migrant workers and members of their families in resettlement and reintegration into the economic, social and cultural life of the State party. Please also provide information on measures taken to address the phenomenon of children left behind by a parent or parents going abroad for work to ensure that they are appropriately provided for and cared for (para. 35 (a)).
Article 67
37.Please provide information on cooperation programmes in place between the State party and relevant States of employment, in particular member States of the Southern African Development Community and of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, for the voluntary return of migrant workers and members of their families to the State party when they decide to return or when they are in the State of employment in an irregular situation. Please clarify the measures taken to ensure that returns are indeed voluntary and take place in accordance with the Convention and the Committee’s general comments, including through independent monitoring and oversight. With regard to migrant workers in a regular situation, please provide information on cooperation programmes between the State party and relevant States of employment, in particular member States of the Southern African Development Community and of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, aimed at promoting adequate economic conditions for resettlement and reintegration in the State party.
Article 68
38.Please provide information on the implementation of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, including through the adoption of the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2014, and on plans to adopt a national action plan to replace the Strategic Framework and National Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Persons, 2014, which was never implemented. Please elaborate on measures taken, including through international, regional and bilateral cooperation with countries of origin, transit and destination, to prevent and combat trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants, in particular women and children, and address their root causes, including in accordance with the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and on the human, technical and financial resources allocated by the State party for implementation. In particular, please elaborate on:
(a)Measures taken by the State party to investigate and prosecute cases of trafficking in persons, ensure adequate sentences for convicted traffickers and provide reparations to victims;
(b)Regular and specialized training provided to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, judges, labour inspectors, service providers and teachers to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations and to strengthen the capacity of Seychellois diplomatic and consular personnel to identify and provide assistance to victims abroad;
(c)Efforts made to ensure that children are not trafficked into domestic work by family members;
(d)Strengthening the National Coordinating Committee on Trafficking in Persons, including through the allocation of sufficient human, technical and financial resources for its effective functioning;
(e)Mechanisms to identify victims of trafficking, provide support to them and facilitate their rehabilitation and the availability of such mechanisms throughout the territory of the State party;
(f)Steps taken to strengthen data collection on victims of trafficking;
(g)Whether victims of trafficking may be granted temporary or permanent residence permits (para. 37).
Article 69
39.Please elaborate on measures taken, and challenges faced, to ensure that migrant workers and members of their families in an irregular situation in the State party have the possibility to regularize their situation in accordance with the provisions of article 69 of the Convention. Please describe the actions taken by the State party, including through bilateral and multilateral agreements, to improve the protection and assistance afforded to its nationals abroad, including efforts to promote the regularization of their situation.
Section II
40.The Committee invites the State party to provide information, not to exceed three pages, regarding the protection of migrant workers and members of their families with respect to the following:
(a)Bills or laws and their respective regulations;
(b)Institutions and their mandates or institutional reforms;
(c)Policies, programmes and action plans covering migration and their scope and financing;
(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments and other relevant instruments, including the ILO Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), the ILO Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143) and the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) (para. 12);
(e)Recent comprehensive studies on the situation of migrant workers and members of their families.
Section III
Data, official estimates, statistics and other information
41.Please provide, if available, statistical data and qualitative information, disaggregated by relevant factors, for the past three years, unless indicated otherwise, on the following:
(a)The volume and nature of migratory movements to and from the State party since the Convention entered into force in the State party;
(b)Migrant workers in detention in the State party and migrant workers who are nationals of the State party and are detained abroad in States of employment, and whether such detention is immigration-related, in particular migrant children, whether or not accompanied by members of their families, and other groups of migrants in vulnerable situations, in particular pregnant women and nursing mothers, victims of trafficking or persons with disabilities;
(c)Migrant workers and members of their families who have been expelled from the State party;
(d)The number of asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons and other persons in need of international protection;
(e)The number of unaccompanied migrant children or migrant children separated from their parents in the State party;
(f)The number of migrant workers and members of their families who have contracted SARS-CoV-2, the number of those who have received a COVID-19 vaccine and the number of those who have died as a result of COVID-19, disaggregated by sex, age and nationality;
(g)Remittances received from nationals of the State party working abroad;
(h)Reported cases of trafficking in migrants, including for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and smuggling of migrants, investigations, prosecutions and sentences imposed on perpetrators, disaggregated by sex, age, nationality and purpose of trafficking;
(i)Legal assistance services provided to migrant workers and members of their families in the State party and to nationals working abroad or in transit through third States.
42.Please provide any additional information on any important developments and measures in implementation of the Convention relating to the protection of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families that are considered a priority, including whether the State party envisages making the declaration under article 76 of the Convention recognizing the competence of the Committee to receive and consider State-to-State communications and/or the declaration under article 77 of the Convention recognizing the competence of the Committee to receive and consider individual communications, as foreseen in the declaration made by the State party upon ratification of the Convention (para. 11).
43.Please submit a common core document in line with the harmonized guidelines on reporting. In accordance with paragraph 16 of General Assembly resolution 68/268, the common core document should not exceed 42,400 words.