22 Policy Monitoring Justice Reform Stakeholder Accountability Worker Protection POLICY MONITORING I. Rethinking temporary labour migration: When approaching temporary migration, particularly in situations where the migrant experiences a restrictive legal environment to truly access his rights, the migrant trades his ‘freedoms’ (of association, from discrimination, etc.) for increased opportunities of employment. His rights are essentially commodified temporarily, and such approaches are relevant to understanding global instruments that insist upon ‘minimum’ or ‘core’ rights for migrants. (Taran, 2009) For example, Article 54(1) in Part IV of the ICMW, applicable only to regular migrant workers, affords them equal treatment with nationals in respect of protection against dismissal and unemployment benefits. Furthermore, they are entitled to right to equality with nationals before courts and tribunals and the right to organize, connecting them to how migrant workers can realise their employment rights in practice. (Cholewinski R. ) Despite the implementation of the GCM, the ratification of ILO Conventions (which majority of destination countries have as yet not performed) and their non-application during the pandemic, it begs the question whether temporary labour migration regimes facilitate migrant and labour rights violations. If so, countries of origin need to take a long hard look at the costs of advocating for migration-led development that are dependent on migrants’ wages and remittances. This discourse is essential to understand core issues within the phenomenon of wage theft – assuming that labour migrants move only for wages and employment, how do migration and protection policies function in a situation where their main aim is not fulfilled? It is imperative that countries of origin and destination seek to change the bases upon which temporary labour Disclaimer: The figures, statistics within the report are based upon the limited documentation of cases submitted to the JFWT platform or separately to MFA. It does not intend to implicate any country, government, industry, employer, etc.