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Photo: UN Women/Christopher Herwig
Issues
Accurate and timely information is essential for safe, orderly and regular migration. Such information is important for migrants to make informed decisions on whether or not to migrate and how to do so safely. Migrant women and girls often lack information about their rights or entitlements under the law, including where and how to access services, as well as the challenges they may face on their journey and upon arrival.
It is critical that women and girls have easy access to information on their rights as well as all the potential gendered risks, such as trafficking in persons, labour exploitation, unethical recruitment practices and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Information should be gender-responsive, human rights-based, culturally sensitive and child- and adolescent-friendly, as well as accessible and easy to understand.
Measures
- Accessible information in simple language understood by the migrant and in appropriate formats (i.e. oral, written, electronic) provided from credible sources for migrant women and girls to understand their rights and obligations at all stages of migration
- An accessible national website that provides information in different languages on the gender-specific risks of migrant women and girls
- Information available regardless of access to the Internet via community centres, religious institutions, schools, libraries, etc. covering options for legal status (including through the asylum system and residence and work permits), education, decent work, justice and due process and health services, including sexual and reproductive health-care services and mental health
- Free or affordable gender-responsive, human-rights based and accessible pre-departure information and training programmes for migrant women outlining the risks and realities of regular and irregular migration channels and providing orientation on the culture and laws in countries of destination
- Pre-departure trainings also cover skills such as confidence, conflict management and negotiation skills, understanding and analyzing contracts, documenting and reporting rights violations and how to access help and services, including consular services, as well as practical information such as on housing and transport
- Trained staff to provide information in relevant languages to all migrant women and girls, including those with low literacy and sensory and intellectual disabilities
- Bilateral, regional and international cooperation and dialogue to share information on gender-specific protection risks
- Information points along relevant migration routes providing migrants with gender-responsive and child-sensitive support and counselling
- Newly arrived migrants provided with gender-responsive, child-sensitive, accessible and comprehensive information, including in accessible formats for persons with disabilities, and legal guidance on their rights and obligations, including on access to decent work and social protection, to justice to file complaints about rights violations and to social services, including health care
- Information in relevant languages on essential services (health, police, justice and social services) for migrant women and girls who are survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV); safe, confidential, and accessible SGBV referral pathways; and staff, including border officials and law enforcement professionals, trained to identify and assist survivors of SGBV
- Gender-responsive and human rights-based information and services for victims of human trafficking
- Information on where to seek free or low-cost assistance and legal redress in situations of distress and/or emergencies
- COVID-19: Provision of up-to-date information on immigration services, travel bans and restrictions, as well as safety and hygiene measures and availability of health services for all migrants, regardless of migration status
- COVID-19: Provision of accessible, quality and reliable COVID-19-related information to diverse groups of women and girls, bearing in mind cultural contexts, local languages (e.g., indigenous peoples, migrant and refugee women, etc.), disabilities and gaps in access to information and communication technologies (i.e. accessible to those with no access to televisions, phones or the Internet)