Female guest workers are a major part of rising living standards and developing local household economies, especially in rural and mountainous areas. Their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation demands the most formidable rights protections possible.
Vietnam has actively worked with employer countries to defend its citizens working overseas, including implementing the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers. It also coordinated with regional countries to draft additional ASEAN migrant worker rights regulations.
Since 2009, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has worked with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) on a project empowering female migrant workers under labour contracts. The project helped raise female migrant workers’ awareness of their legitimate rights and interests abroad, and propose new policies in line with reality.
The Vietnam Labour Export Association (VLEA) has published a range of training documents for businesses and guidebooks for guest workers. It also drafted a code of conduct for labour export enterprises.
The regional seminar on protecting the rights of female guest workers was jointly collaborated by MoLISA, UN Women, VLEA and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
It encouraged information sharing regarding overseas employment supply services in the interests of improving rights protections for female workers.
Domestic and foreign experts discussed issues including labour migration trends, the various states of gender equality in different countries and regions, the main challenges for migrant workers in Asia, policies on the role of businesses in protecting migrant workers, gender-sensitive migration policies, support services for female migrant workers, and ways to ensure female migrant worker protection agreements are enforced.