UN Committee On Migrant Workers Publishes Findings On Jamaica, Mexico And Niger
Geneva, 24 April 2025
The UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW) today issued its findings on Jamaica, Mexico and Niger.
The findings contain the Committee's main concerns and recommendations on the implementation of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, as well as positive aspects. Key highlights include:
Jamaica
The Committee recognized Jamaica's efforts to combat trafficking in persons and welcomed the ratification of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), as well as the implementation of the 'Vision 2030 Jamaica – National Development Plan', aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which supports efforts to address emigration and the 'brain drain' in the country.
The Committee expressed their concern about migration-related legislation stemming from colonial times, which criminalizes irregular migration and lacks due process safeguards. It recommended that the State party accelerate legislative reform initiated by the Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs of obsolete laws affecting migrant workers and their families and harmonize migration-related legislation with the Convention. In particular, the Committee recommended that irregular migration be decriminalized. It also urged the repeal of provisions on 'prohibited immigrants', which discriminate against migrants with disabilities and children of migrant workers in an irregular situation. In addition, the Committee recommended that immigration detention be phased out. It called for the practice of separating children of undocumented migrant workers in immigration detention from their parents and taking them into State care to be discontinued; and that appeals against expulsion decisions have automatic suspensive effect by law. The Committee also noted the limited number of social security agreements with countries hosting Jamaican migrants and encouraged Jamaica to pursue additional agreements to to promote and protect the rights of migrant workers at home and abroad.
Mexico
The Committee took note of Mexico's efforts to align its Migration Law with the General Law on the Rights of Children and Adolescents (LGDNNA) through the legal reform adopted in 2020, particularly to end the detention of migrant children and families. It also welcomed recent initiatives taken by the State to strengthen consular assistance and protection for its nationals abroad, especially in the United States of America.
The Committee expressed concern over the growing militarization of migration management, involvement of private security companies, the widespread use of migration verification operations across the country by actors that do not hold statutory powers to do so. The Committee urged the State party to cease the participation of armed forces in migration functions, to end outsourcing of essential migration policy functions to private actors, and to strengthen national oversight and accountability mechanisms. The Committee also stated concerns about the continued and widespread use of migration-related deprivation of liberty, calling on Mexico to urgently respect a 36-hour maximum limit for detention in migrant holding centres, end deprivation of liberty of migrants, and establish strong safeguards for vulnerable groups of migrants, with policies that prioritize their protection over security concerns, along with monitoring mechanisms and access for civil society.
Niger
The Committee welcomed the adoption of Niger's national migration policy and action plan (2020–2035), and the Law No. 2019-29 on civil status system, which promotes the principle of universal declaration of civil status facts, including for migrants and refugees. It also acknowledged multiple challenges facing the State party, including political instability following the events of July 2023, food insecurity, and the adverse effects of climate change, all of which challenge the full implementation of the Convention.
The Committee expressed concern over the dissolution of the National Human Rights Commission and the failure to establish a national human rights observatory, which was supposed to replace it. The Committee also raised concerns about the repeal of the anti-smuggling law in 2023 and violations of migrants' rights by border authorities, cases of pushbacks and blocking of migrants at borders, and cases of abandonment of migrants massively pushed back to the Sahara Desert. The Committee called for the State party to adopt a human rights-based approach to border management, urging strengthened search and rescue efforts, adherence to the principle of non-refoulement, prohibition of arbitrary and collective expulsions and provisions for immediate assistance to rescued or intercepted migrants.
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