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The 4th Annual Meeting of the Asian Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on Labour Migration was convened in Kathmandu, Nepal from 8-9 November 2014. There were 40 participants to the conference, which included current and former Members of Parliament, Parliamentary staff, representatives from civil society and trade unions and select expert resource speakers. Countries represented were Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia,...

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On 14-16 April 2014, the Advisory Committee of the Asian Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on Labour Migration met in Kuala Lumpur for their second meeting and to conduct a ‘fact-finding’ mission in Malaysia. The 7 participants included current members of parliament, parliamentary staff and former parliamentarians from Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Pakistan. The delegation heard from civil society, trade...

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On February 26th, the House of Representative called the first hearing of 2014 to follow up on deliberations from 2013. The meeting, chaired by congressmen Walden Bello, included the continuation of deliberations on the Sex for Flight scheme, updates from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) on the anticipated ‘mega recruitment agencies’ in Saudi Arabia, the continued discussion on the alleged violent crackdown of OFWs at...

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Beginning in June 2013, the Philippines has drawn international scrutiny with the Sex for Flight scheme. Congressmen Walden Bello exposed the alleged scheme where Filipino Mission officials in Saudi Arabia allegedly promised repatriation for female overseas Filipino workers in exchange for sexual favors.   Thus far, five OFWs have given their testimonies on their experiences of abuse in Saudi Arabia. These include allegations of being...

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