Migration

Closing the Migration-Trafficking Protection Gap: Policy Coherence in Myanmar

This current paper, addresses horizontal policy coherence in labour migration and anti-trafficking arenas, with an examination of the main actors and their roles, the laws and policies involved, and strategies and mechanisms. Stronger, better coordinated labour migration and anti-trafficking governance can positively affect the wider development of the country, creating better migration journeys where exploitation does not feature in migrants’ experiences, where migration outcomes are empowering, rewarding, and positive, and where access to remedy and justice are guaranteed in cases where problems do occur.

The ILO is implementing the Developing International and Internal Migration Governance (DIILM) project supported by the Livelihood and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT) to improve the safety and benefits of labour migration. Through this, the ILO has produced a series of briefing papers (on complaints mechanisms, recruitment and social protection) to provide technical input into the revision of the Law Relating to Overseas Employment (LROE) and is producing a related series for increased coherence in migration policies, of which this report is one. In 2017, the ILO published a paper, Building Labour Migration Policy Coherence in Myanmar, which provided an overview of how and where labour migration management could be interlinked with other policies and where better cooperation and coordination should be fostered, specifically building on the National Plan of Action for the Management of International Labour Migration. In 2020, Policy Coherence for Development: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Labour Migration Governance in Myanmar was published.