Unemployment and rampant poverty have made Asian countries turn into major migrant-sending countries without adequate protection of migrant workers’ rights. Migrant workers from Asia have become victims to unscrupulous people in the global labor market and are subjected to many forms of violence, abuse and sexual exploitation. The number of migrants crossing borders within Asia and beyond the borders of Asia in search of financial opportunity and human security is rapidly increasing.  In 2013, the number of migrants rose to 59.4 million in Asia and the Pacific, accounting for roughly one-quarter of the world’s total population of migrants. Intra-ASEAN migration is very significant, amounting to 3.9 million migrants compared with about 12.9 million moving to the rest of the world. Therefore, about 31% of the international migration within Asia is intra-ASEAN migration. Other main destinations of migrants from South and Southeast Asia are the Arabian Gulf countries and the European Union. More than 9 million Filipino’s Diaspora currently live in Asia and other countries. From Indonesia alone, about 700,000 migrant workers leave their homes every year to seek work abroad. Approximately 75 per cent of all documented Indonesian migrant workers are women, with the vast majority working as domestic workers. Bangladesh, over a period of 33 years, has sent through regular channels alone, more than 6.26 million migrant workers mostly to Middle Eastern countries. Regarding Sri Lanka, recent estimates suggest that over a million migrants work abroad while the annual reported outflows are about 200,000 persons. Over two million Nepalese men and women work abroad in countries other than India. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from India are in various Arabian Gulf countries. Malaysia has a total of 1.9 million registered migrant workers, constituting approximately 21 per cent of the workforce, making Malaysia the largest importer of labor in Asia. In addition, there are an estimated 2-3 million undocumented migrants.

There is a troubling paucity of examining the plights of Asian migrant workers with regard to health care which is a basic tenet of human rights. Migrant workers go through enormous emotional and psychological trauma on account of being away from their families and of their loneliness often in sub-human living conditions. They are not able to be joined by members of their families for several years; not able to travel back when their family members are sick of dying because their passports are confiscated by their employers; not able to travel because they have to pay back loans borrowed to pay the agents who facilitated their travel. They are forced to work long hours without rest or relaxation with little or no contact with friends or local community. Of all the migrant workers, women are the worst victims. Thousands of Asian migrant women are working as domestic workers, in inhuman living conditions, in different Asian countries and in Arabian Gulf countries. It is estimated that over 55% of Asian migrant workers are women. Most of these are domestic workers, often exposed to sexual abuse and harassment, harsh treatment, lack of health care and with little or no contact with anyone outside their work places. There were several cases reporting that workers find suicide to be their only escape from their desperate circumstances. Many Asian governments and their economies benefit a great deal from the foreign exchange remittances by the migrant workers. However, hardly any of these governments do anything to protect and support the rights of migrant workers. The government should have a systematic implementation policy to at least decrease the number of agencies that deceive, recruit, and exploit workers and improve their conditions, giving migrant workers regular access to medical care both in the receiving and sending country.

The given context warrants Asian churches and CCA as a regional organization to take concrete steps to raise their voices for the vulnerable groups and advocate for their rights, dignity and safety through relevant forums as well as through governments.  The CCA plans to have regional and sub-regional consultations on the rights of migrant workers and ecumenical responses; solidarity visits to Asian migrant worker’s labor camps in the Arabian Gulf countries; and campaigns for ratification and implementation of international convention of rights of migrant workers and their families. It is expected that these activities will alert the Asian churches and ecumenical councils on the plight of the migrant workers in sending and receiving countries and mobilize them to organize, together with civil society organizations, national campaigns to ratify and implement the international convention on the rights of migrant workers and their families.