For many people, the offer of a new job brings with it excitement, a sense of achievement, and if you're lucky a bigger pay check.
As your first day approaches, your nerves kick in and you start to wonder…
What will it be like? Will I enjoy it? Will my new boss be nice?
Now imagine, if your new job took you to another country where you didn't speak the language.
After travelling several hours to get there, you realise that the job you accepted is not the job that is waiting for you.
Instead, you are forced to work in a factory for long hours and in dangerous conditions.
You have no money to return home, no official documents, and you are told that you now owe your new employer the cost of your travel.
The salary you do receive is so little that you can barely afford to survive.
This is when a new job turns into a nightmare.
Unfortunately, this type of story is all too common for many people in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
As migrant workers cross borders to take up jobs in informal or poorly regulated labour markets, they are often at risk of exploitation.
Through the Tripartite Action to Protect Migrant Workers from Labour Exploitation (TRIANGLE) project, AusAID supports the International Labour Organization to promote legal and safe migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion and Malaysia, a key destination country.
Over its lifespan, TRIANGLE will protect an estimated 20,000 migrant workers from exploitation by providing legal assistance on labour rights, and by improving national labour standards.
AusAID has committed $10.5 million over five years (2010-15) for the TRIANGLE project.
Already, we have seen results with:
- 3813 migrants in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand receiving counselling or training on safe migration and rights at work
- 3216 migrants in Malaysia and Thailand receiving legal assistance
- 2184 migrants in Malaysia and Thailand joining trade unions, migrant networks or associations
- 261 government officers from central and provincial levels receiving training in migration processes and labour inspections
- 1204 district, commune and village-level leaders and volunteers in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam receiving training in safe migration, and
- 19 Migrant Worker Resource Centres being established in Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to provide support to migrant workers as well as potential migrant workers and their families.