Context:

• As India’s economy rises, millions from States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Kerala migrate abroad for work, sustaining families and contributing significantly to national income.
• However, the Overseas Mobility (Facilitation and Welfare) Bill, 2025—meant to replace the 1983 Emigration Act—risks weakening protections for these vulnerable workers.
• Marketed as a modern, efficient reform, the Bill prioritises ease of movement and deregulation over worker safety and welfare.
• Critics argue it could intensify exploitation rather than provide meaningful safeguards, turning a promised shield into a system that accelerates migrant workers’ insecurity.
• This article highlights how India’s Overseas Mobility (Facilitation and Welfare) Bill, 2025, risks undermining the rights and safety of millions of migrant workers by prioritising deregulation and administrative ease over protection, accountability, and welfare.

Overseas Mobility Bill, 2025: Core Concerns

• Dilution of Migrant Workers’ Legal Rights
  • The Bill removes provisions that earlier allowed migrant workers to directly pursue legal action against exploiters.
  • Unlike the 2021 draft, it weakens enforceable rights and shifts responsibility to an overstretched state apparatus.
• Weakening Protections for Women and Vulnerable Migrants
  • Labour migration is deeply gendered, yet the Bill dilutes specific safeguards for women and children.
  • Stronger penalties proposed earlier are replaced with vague references to “vulnerable classes,” risking poor enforcement.
• Silence on Human Trafficking
  • The Bill fails to explicitly address human trafficking, despite migrants operating in high-risk corridors.
  • This omission undermines protection against coercion, forced labour, and modern forms of slavery.
• Deregulation of Recruitment Agencies
  • Key anti-exploitation measures are rolled back.
  • Mandatory disclosure of recruitment fees is dropped, increasing risks of debt bondage, contract substitution, and fraud by unregulated agents.
• Risky Accreditation and Digital-Only Oversight
  • Replacing Emigration Check Posts with digital clearances may streamline procedures but removes critical on-ground safeguards.
  • The accreditation model risks legitimising unscrupulous recruiters.
• Reduced Accountability Abroad
  • Earlier provisions holding recruitment agencies responsible for reception, dispute resolution, and document renewal overseas are diluted.
  • These duties are shifted to government bodies with limited capacity.
• Surveillance Without Safeguards
  • The Integrated Information System expands data collection without clear consent or protection norms, raising concerns about surveillance rather than worker welfare.
  • Online recruitment fraud remains unaddressed.
• Inadequate Reintegration Support
  • Reintegration measures are weak.
  • The Bill offers limited support for skill training or trauma care and excludes migrants deported within 182 days from rehabilitation benefits.
• Excessive Centralisation
  • Decision-making is concentrated at the Centre, sidelining States with high migration experience like Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.
  • Trade unions and civil society groups are excluded from governance structures.
• Weak Penalties and Enforcement Gaps
  • Penalties target recruitment violations but fail to address traffickers or abusive overseas employers, leaving the most powerful actors beyond the law’s reach.

A Call to Strengthen Protections for India’s Migrant Workers

• India’s labour migrants are vital contributors to the economy, not expendable exports.
• The Overseas Mobility Bill, 2025 risks deepening inequities by weakening safeguards and accountability.
• Parliament must act to restore workers’ self-advocacy rights, enforce transparent recruitment fees, ensure post-arrival protections, and involve States and civil society in governance.
• Stronger anti-trafficking provisions, expanded definitions of work, meaningful penalties with compensation, and well-funded reintegration support are essential.
• What migrants need is not facilitation alone, but firm legal and institutional protection.

Conclusion

• Unless substantially amended, the Overseas Mobility Bill will deepen migrant vulnerability; India must replace facilitation-driven reform with a rights-based, federal, and worker-centric protection framework.