He uses this discourse to criticize the pervading neoliberal view (“among liberal economists and ILO”) where exploitation is placed firmly within the concept of forced labour and fails to consider that ‘free’ labour too is involved in an unequal exchange of their labour power for wages. For instance, Lerche mentions that discourse on trafficking for forced labour and commodity chain links leading to forced labour, and employers in transition countries misusing cheap labour, etc., fails to link these concepts to the consequences of globalized economies and capitalism. This is also true of present-day migration and decent work discourse where the emphasis is upon ‘reformation’ of inherently exploitative labour markets instead of challenging the clear power dynamics and inequalities that plague migration processes at the macro, meso and micro levels. Despite a global pandemic affecting every aspect of human life and work as it exists, there is yet to be concerted action to challenge the overall system that created conditions for the occurrence of such exploitation. As is with isolating ‘3D jobs’ and decent work discourse from state culpability in enabling discriminatory conditions, international, regional and national institutions and processes are focused on piecemeal actions that serve compartmentalised labour (such as ‘free’, ‘forced’, ‘domestic’, etc.) instead of tackling the pervading phenomena of labour exploitation, present among all sections of migrant labour. 24