Chair of Parliament's Women's Rights committee Mikael Gustafsson has welcomed the plenary adoption of a report on the protection of undocumented women's rights today, despite the final text's shortcomings.

“While I am pleased that this report was adopted, in many ways the committee report had a stronger position on the protection of undocumented women migrants' fundamental rights,” commented the MEP. “It is very clear that the European Parliament's right-wing forces worked hard to weaken the report by taking out a call for member state ratification of the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers, as well as references to the need to increase legal, humanitarian and social assistance for undocumented women migrants.

Gustafsson continued: “But despite the report being watered-down, in general I´m quite satisfied with the outcome and especially happy that the European Parliament has recognised the need to protect all migrant women, both documented and undocumented, who have been victims of abuse or gender-based violence, including those exploited in the prostitution industry. The report also calls on member states not to require schools and healthcare practitioners to report undocumented migrants.”

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