Migration policies must safeguard the right to family life –
new UN Human Rights report urges policy redesign in Asia-Pacific
BANGKOK (15 May 2025) – Migration policies in the Asia-Pacific region have profound impacts on families, the UN Human Rights Office says, urging policy redesign across the region as it launched a new report highlighting the right to family life of migrants and their families.
The report, entitled: “Enhancing the human right to family life for migrants and their families in the Asia Pacific region,” comes on the International Day of Families, which focuses this year on the pivotal role of family-oriented policies in advancing sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda highlights the important place of families as development actors, committing States to promote cohesive families and communities.
Millions of migrants in and from the Asia-Pacific region face interference with their family life due to restrictive migration policies, the report finds. They are separated from immediate family members for lengthy period of time through the denial of family accompaniment in temporary labour migration programmes, restrictions on the freedom of movement of migrant workers and the widespread criminalization of irregular migration leading to prolonged immigration detention. Some States in the region prohibit migrant workers from starting families by restricting their right to marry.
In drafting the report, UN Human Rights heard from migrants of their experience of family separation and being unable to start families. They spoke of the gap between parents and children who no longer know each other, the immense sense of loss for parents when they miss out on their children growing up, the feeling of being “permanently incomplete” when families are separated.
“Everyone, including migrants, is entitled to family life regardless of who they are or what work they do,” said Pia Oberoi, UN Human Rights’ Senior Advisor on Human Rights and Migration for the Asia-Pacific Region.
“Families are the foundational unit of our societies. Normalising family separation in low-waged labour migration, routinely separating families through immigration detention or restricting pregnancy should not be standard features of migration governance in the region.”
“In designing migration policies, States must pay attention to the social costs, the protection risks and the mental and physical health impacts on migrants and their families of being denied their right to family life,” she said.
“In line with the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its commitment to leave no one behind, migration governance in Asia-Pacific should be fundamentally re-designed to respect, protect and fulfil family life.”
To read the full report, please click here.
ENDS
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