WOMEN MIGRANT WORKERS AND THE IOM.

Migration is considered one of the defining global issues of the early twenty-first century, as more and more people are on the move today than at any other point in human history. There are now about 192 million people living outside their place of birth, which is about three per cent of the world's population. IOM is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners.[1]

One of the main concerns of this organization is the role that gender plays in the international arena regading migrant issues since women are seen as more vulnerable and easy to take advantage of . Many attempts to improve female situation have been made by the IOM including :

· The convention No.100 concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value which has as main purpose to avoid any remuneration discrimination based on sex.

· The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which has the purpose of prevent and combat trafficking in persons, paying particular attention to women and children and to protect and assist the victims of such trafficking.

· The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

· The implementation of training programs such as:

o “ Backs Training for Bangladesh’s women migrant workers”, which was based on a standardize training manual on domestic work for women in Bangladesh in 2007 in an attempt to improve professional and social skills and therefore the marketability of Bangladeshi womens abroad,

o “The migrant women for development in Africa” which has main purpose of engaging African women migrants residing in Italy in the development of their countries..

· The creation of some cooperation agreements with regional institutions such as INMUJERES the Mexican National Women's Institute in order to to implement technical cooperation and assistance programs, develop projects for migrant women at national, state and local level, organize research and studies and exchange experts.

As those just named many other efforts and actions are being developed by the IOM to protect and improve the conditions of migrant women all around the world as they often work in gender-segregated and unregulated sectors of the economy and they are at a much higher risk of gender discrimination, human trafficking and violence.

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[1] INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION LAW DATA BASE . (2010). Retrieved 10 22, 2010, from INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS: http://www.imldb.iom.int/browseDocumentPager.do?page=3

2 international organization for migration. (2010). Retrieved 10 22, 2020, from http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/lang/en/pid/1

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