Almost 90 per cent of international migrants are workers with their families. This makes international migration a distinctive labour issue. Migrants have a right to decent work and occupational safety and health (OSH) is at the core of attaining decent work. Nevertheless safety and health policies in receiving countries frequently disregard the particular problems migrant workers face.

The employment of migrant workers in precarious jobs, mostly in the informal sector and clandestine work, makes them susceptible to risky and unsafe work settings without access neither to safety and health requirements nor to social security and insurance schemes. Moreover, the language and cultural barriers for low skilled migrants need to be considered while training or communicating safety measures with them. This is exacerbated by the long hours migrants spend at work augmenting the risk of exposure to occupational injuries.

Where national OSH policies and strategies do exist, the specificities of migrant workers are often left out. It is time these concerns are addressed to protect the basic rights of workers looking to make a living but not at the expense of their health and well-being.

For more information and research articles on migration and safety and health:

• American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO): Immigrant workers at risk: The urgent need for improved workplace safety and health policies and programs, (Washington, DC, August 2005).

• European Foundation for the Improvement of Working and Living Conditions (EUROFOUND): Employment and working conditions of migrant workers, (Dublin, May 2007).

• European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EASHW): Literature study on migrant workers, (Bilbao, Nov. 2007).

• Human Rights Watch (HRW): One year of my blood: Exploitation of migrant construction workers in Beijing, (New York, March 2008), Vol. 20, No. 3(C).

• International Labour Organization (ILO): Conclusions concerning ILO standards-related activities in the area of occupational safety and health – A global strategy, 91st Session of the ILO International Labour Conference, June 2003, Geneva, pp. 22-44.

• --- Towards a fair deal for migrant workers in the global economy, Report VI, 92sd Session of the ILO International Labour Conference, June 2004, Geneva.

• --- «The global challenges of labour inspection», Labour Education, Bureau for Workers’ Activities (International Labour Office, Geneva), Special issue, 2005/3-4, No. 140-141.

• --- The ILO multilateral framework on labour migration: Non-binding principles and guidelines for a rights-based approach to labour migration, International Migration Programme (International Labour Office, Geneva), 2006.

• Piyasiri Wickramasekara: «Editorial» in Asian-Pacific Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety, Vol. 14, No. 2, Sep. 2007.

• --- «Globalization and international migration: Implications for occupational safety and health», ibid., Special issue on Migrant Workers, Vol. 17, No. 3, Dec. 2007, pp. 61-65.

See MIGRANT, the ILO International Migration Programme Web site.