SEANF Paper on Migrant Workers to significantly step up enforcement of the provisions of the Policy on Recruitment of Foreign Workers 1991, and take strong action against employers who violate the policy through contract substitution, unauthorized deductions of recruitment and other fees from workers’ pay, and failure to provide clean and hygienic housing and food to workers. 91. The SEANF recommends that appropriate measures be in place to identify trafficking in persons amongst migrant workers, that the victims are protected and that perpetrators are brought to justice. C. The Philippines The SEANF makes the following recommendations to the Government of the Philippines: 92. The SEANF calls on the Government of the Philippines to undertake an immediate review of all its laws related to migration, and make revisions to bring those laws into compliance with the UN and ILO Conventions to which the Philippines is a party. Specifically, the SEANF recommends the harmonization and translation into domestic law of (1) the provisions of the ILO Conventions ratified by the Government and (2) the ICRMW, with a specific focus on amending the Republic Act 8042 (the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995) to formally incorporate adherence to the ICRMW into national law.26 93. The SEANF recommends that the Government oppose legislative efforts to amend the objectives of Republic Act No. 8042 to formally identify overseas employments as a means to sustain economic growth and achieve national development. Without an effective system of safeguards for migrant workers’ human rights, the SEANF finds that promoting migration an economic 26 In its review of the Philippines compliance with the ICRMW, the Committee on Migrant Workers recommended that it “… reiterates that the exercise of human rights is not based on the principle of reciprocity and recommends that the State party take necessary steps to align its domestic legislation with the Convention” and “…the State party review its migration policy in order to give primary importance to human rights of migrant workers, in line with the State party’s own professed goals as set out in RA 8042.” Committee On The Protection of the Rights Of All Migrant Workers And Members Of Their Families, CMW/C/PHL/CO/1, Tenth Session, 20 April – 1 May 2009, 22 May 2009. 41