8 not address the right of migrant workers to access the justice mechanism in either the country of origin or destination. The issue of wage theft among returnees was widely discussed in India after MFA and its partners initiated the wage theft campaign. MFA, in association with several civil society and trade union collectives, called upon the countries of origin and destination to urgently put in place a transitional justice mechanism with the objectives of setting up an urgent justice mechanism to address grievances, claims, and labour disputes of repatriated workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic10. By establishing a Justice for Wage theft campaign website, MFA documented the wage theft case with support from its partners. The CSOs in India such as the Centre for Indian Migrant Studies (CIMS) in Kerala, Emigrant Welfare Forum (EWF) in Telengana, National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) in Tamil Nadu, etc., have established helplines and online complaint fora to document and understand the extent of the problem. The efforts of the CSOs for ensuring access to justice mechanisms for the victims of wage theft underlines the right-centric approach of nongovernment stakeholders. The coalition of CSOs among origin and destination countries offers opportunities for bilateral and multilateral advocacy. Even though the state governments’ role is limited in ensuring access to justice, a few state governments in India responded pro-actively to the crisis. Notably, the Kerala government's Norka department set up a toll-free number and complaint forms to report wage theft cases. They have received around 600 cases so far and have provided the information to the Indian missions in the Gulf countries (Rajan and Akhil 2021). The inadequate responses made the Norka-Roots involve the lawyers’ panel and hand over the cases to the Norka lawyers in the destination countries. However, these efforts did not produce many successful results in the past year. The governments of Andhra via Andhra Pradesh Non-Resident Telugu (APNRT) society and Overseas Manpower Corporation (OMCAP) documented the information of return migrants. The data will be used to reintegrate the workers into the domestic labour market and enhance remigration by sharing the data with foreign employers. Such efforts might help the victims of wage theft in the state. However, the state and national governments are still reluctant to cooperate with the non-state stakeholders to address the grievances of the migrant workers, especially the issue of wage theft against the repatriated workers. 4. THE WAY FORWARD AND RECOMMENDATIONS In a nutshell, the victims of wage theft among the repatriated workers to India are yet to access the justice mechanisms. Apart from a few group cases reported that were resolved after negotiations between employers and workers’ collectives, the majority of the workers are still groping in the dark. The financial constraints, the reluctance of legal firms to accept the requests from workers, and the restrictions during the pandemic reduce the chances of individual's attempts to recover unpaid wages and dues. One of the significant barriers to handling wage theft cases is the lack of systematic collection of information at the ports before and after the journey. A visible absence of co-operation between the state and non-state stakeholders prevents any possibilities of data sharing on wage theft. The governments at the national and state levels are reluctant to use the data and information available with the grassroots level stakeholders for evidence-based policymaking in the country. 10https://justiceforwagetheft.org/