By Alastair Lawson in Dhaka

Migrant workers from all over Asia will get the rare opportunity to meet and discuss their problems at a three day conference being held in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

The Migration and Migration Workers Health and Wellbeing Conference will assess the problems experienced by more than fifteen million people, mostly from South Asia, who work in foreign countries.

Organised by the Migrant Forum in Asia and the Asian Migrant Centre, it will focus on gender-based violence, health problems, inadequate training and poor working conditions.

The conference is set to end with a motion calling on countries who use migrant workers to sign a charter to guarantee worker rights.

Hardship

Conference organisers say that while migrant labour has provided better incomes, it has also brought many hardships.

In many cases they are treated as low status employees at the mercy of discriminatory regimes which encourage foreign professionals to take up temporary residence, while simultaneously failing to grant them legal recognition.

Delegates at the conference say migrants are frequently pushed into menial, low-paying and physically demanding jobs where human rights are not respected and working conditions are dangerous.

Illness

They say that migrants are wrongly blamed for creating crime and social disorder.

As a result, organisers say, they often suffer from mental illness and are sent home as soon as there is any sign of sickness.

Women in particular have suffered over the last twenty years, with many raped or forced into prostitution.

The conference is due to pass a resolution against Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan for subjecting women to mandatory AIDS testing and immediately deporting workers who are found to be positive.