remuneration). They have long been bearing the brunt of merciless working conditions, and most often than not, unable to claim justice. Regrettably, the costs paid by migrant workers to further their living conditions have been amplified by the economic effects deriving from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Combined with unemployment and salaries’ renegotiation as part of employers’ coping strategies, wage theft contributed to a significant reduction in income and financial security for both migrant workers and their families at home. Migrant workers’ inability to send money back home, also led to increased psychological pressure and a source of risk for the development of mental illnesses: the projected significant reduction in remittance flows as a result of the economic effects of this pandemic is going to have a marked effect on the ability of many households to survive. The perpetration of wage theft is thus a fundamental component that needs to be addressed in moving forwards, to reverse the worsening of migrant workers’ plight. Up until now, migrant workers have been failed by a world built around values that have not been translated into practice. As Nadimpally says in an interview for the New Internationalist, “the vulnerabilities that have emerged require a political, social and economic solution that is structural. These are not new issues […but w]e need to think in a different way now.”46 We need to concretely build back better47 on those often disregarded ideals that were meant to pave the way for greater human development in the aftermath of a global catastrophe. As advocated by Haque in the panel discussion on transitional justice,48 migrants’ rights matter and cannot be disregarded. It is fundamental to reconsider the role that migrant workers play in our societies, in the global economy, and the importance that their ability to work has on millions of lives - not only for those who migrate but also for those that, as a result, receive the remittances and invest them back at home. It is paramount to create societies that respond to the specific needs of migrant workers and that support them in times of hardship, through improved and extended social protection measures but also through ensuring that justice is realised for them as well. 46 The New Internationalist, Sarojini Nadimpally (July/August 2020) N. 526 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Building Back Better: A Sustainable, Resilient Recovery after COVID19, (5 June 2020) http://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/building-back-better-a-sustainable-resilient-recovery-aftercovid-19-52b869f5/ 48 Youtube, Panel Discussion: Transitional Justice: Towards “Building Back Better” (Diaspora Transnationalism, 21 June 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-QeiVUAQNY&t=7180s 47 7