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Fonte: Nota de Imprensa da Agência dos Direitos Fundamentais da União Europeia (FRA)

The need to strengthen the protection of the rights of exploited migrant workers is the major conclusion of the most recent report of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), in which the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra participated, through its Permanent Observatory of Justice (OPJ).

Accordingly, under the contract with the FRA, CES/OPJ contributed to the last report analysing how the Employer Sanctions Directive protects irregular migrants from exploitation, focusing on the assessment of how EU countries use the Directive to ensure that exploited workers obtain justice.

Although the EU has legal rules in place to protect irregular migrant workers from exploitation and abuse by exploitative employers, the report warns that there are gaps in their implementation. It also stresses that «workers do not know their rights or how to claim them, and even when they do, they may not receive proper compensation. EU countries must do better to protect migrant workers' rights under existing EU rules».

It also mentions the right of people in this situation, even if illegal under EU law, to be able to go to court to obtain justice, and the need for countries in the European Community area to commit themselves to protecting this vulnerable population from situations of exploitation at work. For improvement in this field, the document identifies a number of gaps in implementation and recommends that EU countries: improve complaint mechanisms; change laws and practices; issue temporary residence permits for victims of serious labour exploitation.

This partnership between CES/OPJ and FRA has assumed enormous relevance in systematic research on various themes related to the promotion and protection of fundamental rights in Portugal, having become possible with the integration of CES/OPJ within FRANET, the FRA's multidisciplinary research network for the period between 2019 and 2021. This participation has been a permanent stimulus to collect and analyse data regarding the main challenges faced by the European Union, in particular in Portugal, in terms of fundamental rights, contributing to the Agency's comparative analyses, published in particular in the annual reports. Topics such as racism, xenophobia, migration, hate speech or access to justice have been addressed throughout this period.

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Source: Press Release of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)