ABSTRACT

On 5 October 1994, Foreign Secretary Romulo of the Philippines called on the United Nations to hold an international conference on the effects of global migration on development as the ‘transnational migration of workers is an increasingly important phenomenon and the rights of migrant workers must be protected’ ( Migration News 1994a). The salience of these issues is clearly evident for the Philippines, a significant exporter of migrant workers since the 1960s and which is today, the leading exporter of labour in Asia and the world’s leading exporter of female workers, of whom well over half are domestic or sex workers.