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The United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers has said that Mozambique has made progress in protecting the rights of migrant workers, but points out the prevalence of abuse, including to children, and arbitrary detention.
The UN body assessed the treatment of migrant workers in Mozambique in response to a report on the situation, which the Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Joaquim Veríssimo, presented in Geneva on 4 September.
According to the report from the UN Committee on Migrant Workers, the Mozambican authorities introduced legislative changes to protect the rights of people in this situation.
The document highlights Mozambique’s efforts to prevent forced labour.
Despite progress, the Committee notes, that some workers, particularly undocumented workers, are victims of sexual and labour exploitation, including forced labour in mines, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and the domestic sector.
The United Nations said it is concerned about “the large number of migrant children exposed to hazardous working conditions working in mines, construction, quarries, markets or domestic and sexual workers.”
The report highlights the deportation of hundreds of mine workers in the northern province of Cabo Delgado in February last year and who were subjected to arbitrary detention, extortion and expulsion.
The UN committee said the country must establish mechanisms that make it possible to evaluate if the deportations of migrant workers happen in line with international requirements.
The report noted that Mozambique has cooperation agreements with South Africa, Brazil and Portugal on the protection of migrant workers but considers that the country should sign other bilateral and multilateral agreements to improve respect for migrant rights.
In relation to human trafficking, the experts are concerned about a lack of charges and trials, noting that “some traffickers benefit from the complicity of the Mozambican police force.”
The report is part of a periodic assessment of all signatory states of the International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.
The document said that 17,935 migrant workers entered Mozambique legally in 2017. that same year, 858 foreign workers were hired illegally or suspended.
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