The I"IN Convention on the Protection of the Rights ofAll Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (Migrant Workers Convention, 1990) in particular unfortunately ratified by only 37 states none of which are major migrant destination countries - relates these rights to the specific contexts and vulnerabilities of migrant workers moving across international borders and their families. These all cover a wide range of rights and rather than enumerate these and corresponding violations, it will be useful to instead pick out the most significant burdens and vulnerabilities affecting migrant workers requiring the most immediate attention. Many of the problems faced by Filipino migrants are the same as faced by migrants from elsewhere within ASEAN, and indeed from other nations, especially insofar as these are rooted in the deeper problem of the commodification of labor employer abuse, illegal recruitment, oppressive contracts and so on - and discrimination against women. Indonesian migrants for instance confront the same issues that OFWs do in Singapore or in Malaysia. Thus the experience in the Philippines and of OFWs abroad, likewise of Indonesia and of their migrants overseas, can offer rich lessons for countries increasingly going into labor migration such as Vietnam and even Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. And there are of course those pioblems specific to the Philippine context especially as related to government structures, processes and laws. Employer exploitation,maltreatment and abuse. Filipino migrants overall are subjected to a wide range of abuses from their employers especially: underpayment or non-payment of salaries and benefits, extremely long working hours, lack of days-off or corresponding compensation, poor working conditions, unjust dismissal, sexual violence, physical attacks, and other degrading treatment. These are already well-documented. Unjust state exactions. The largest number of migrants generally come from households with limited incomes and options to begin with which makes them vulnerable from the very start of the migration cycle. Ironically the initial application, recruitment and hiring stages can very often intensify their wlnerability aside from creating the conditions for greater abuses once abroad. Among the most common problems are the onerous expenses and resulting debt burdens that aspiring migrants, focused on being able to find work abroad at any cost, accumulate throughout the early bureaucratic process. This is also an objective condition that makes the cheaper and less bureaucratic option of undocumented work status appealing despite the attendant risks. Migrante has estimated that a potential migrant will be payrng the government some PI8,000 just to complete the basic documentary requirements consisting of: P7,600 (equivalent to Pl00 for each of 76 signatures needed), P550 for the passport (plus P250 for every Saturday application), P7,500 in fees to POEA, Pt,375 in fees to OWWA (US$25 per contract), P75 voter's registration fee to the Comelec, and P900 for PhilHealth/Medicare (annual). To put this into context, the results of the latest FIES of 2006 indicate that the poorest 13.9 million or 80% of Filipino families had average family incomes of between P2,700 and P17,000 per month. 27