GENEVA - The UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW) today issued its findings on Honduras, Indonesia, and Mauritania after reviewing the three States Parties.
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:
Honduras
The Committee welcomed the adoption of the National Emergency Strategy for the Protection of Honduran Migrants. However, it expressed concern about high levels of gender-based violence and femicide, which, together with impunity and inadequate protection for victims and survivors, constitute structural causes of migration. It further underlined its concern about the multiple forms of violence faced by migrants, including girls and boys in transit, such as extortion, kidnapping, gender-based violence, homicide and enforced disappearance, along the migration route, particularly in Mexico. The Committee asked Honduras to adopt a comprehensive national strategy to prevent violence, ensuring early warning, access to justice, victim protection and prompt investigations, and develop specific measures to protect migrants forced to return. It further recommended a national policy to prevent, investigate and punish enforced disappearance of migrant workers.
The Committee was concerned about arrests, detention and collective expulsions of Honduran migrant workers and their families in the United States, affecting their rights to liberty, family life, the rights of the child, due process, protection against ill-treatment, racism and xenophobia, and the principles of non-refoulement and the right to asylum. It also expressed concern about the adverse impact on these rights resulting from the externalization of migration control to third countries and the unilateral termination of temporary protection measures. The Committee recommended that Honduras strengthen its foreign policy to protect the rights of Honduran migrant workers and their families, especially those in the United States, and ensure legal aid, consular protection, access to information on procedural guarantees, transnational justice mechanisms and access to reparations.
Indonesia
The Committee took note of the adoption of legislation, as well as several institutional and policy measures, on the protection of Indonesian migrant workers. The Committee, however, highlighted the increase in criminal networks targeting migrant workers for online labour exploitation, online scamming and illegal lending, as well as the rise in fake job advertisements on social media and false recruitment targeting young people for jobs in Southeast Asia and for trafficking into scam centres. It urged Indonesia to develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent and investigate these cases.
The Committee also raised red flags regarding the situation of sea-based migrant workers, who face dire working conditions and excessive working hours, compounded by the existence of two parallel licensing regimes for recruitment agencies and gaps in oversight. It called on Indonesia to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the situation of sea-based migrant workers and develop a strategy to align their work conditions with the Convention, to establish a unified licensing regime, and to implement an independent and robust oversight mechanism.
Mauritania
The Committee welcomed the establishment of a specialized tribunal for slavery, trafficking and migrant smuggling, and a national referral mechanism for victims. However, the Committee was concerned about mass arrests and collective expulsions of migrants that have occurred since early 2025 across Mauritania, including in public places, private residences and in workplaces. The Committee noted that migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, including those holding valid residence permits and UNHCR protection documents, have been arrested and expelled to the borders with Senegal and Mali without individualized assessments, in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. It expressed grave concern about the climate of fear created by arbitrary arrests, document confiscation, and corruption, which prevents migrants from accessing justice, and urged Mauritania to immediately cease collective expulsions, ensure individualized assessments before any removal, and guarantee due process and respect for non-refoulement.
The Committee also received allegations of violence during arrests, corruption and extortion by officials demanding payments for release, deplorable detention conditions with inadequate access to food, hygiene, and medical care. It called on the State Party to guarantee independent oversight mechanisms of all detention facilities, investigate and sanction corruption and abuse by officials, and guarantee migrants' effective access to justice and remedies regardless of their migration status.
The above findings, officially known as Concluding Observations, are now available on the session page.
