This document contains the consolidated reflections and Inputs from the Migrant Workers’ Consultation with Surya Deva, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development. The consultation was convened by Migrant Forum in Asia.

The Declaration on the Right to Development (RTD), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1986, asserts that development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which, every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural, and political development. Historically, however, state-centric, capital-driven development paradigms have marginalized the very populations whose labor underwrites global wealth.

This MFA submission operationalizes the localized expertise, lived realities, and institutional critiques voiced by grassroots migrant rights advocates, civil society leaders, and migrant workers during the special consultation convened on 26 May 2026, with Surya Deva, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development. It argues for a fundamental structural shift: migrating away from a framework that treats human mobility as a transactional mechanism or enterprise of economic labor export for development, toward a rights-based, migrant-supportive paradigm that recognizes migrants as equal development partners and primary social actors. This bridges the gap between mobility and growth, and it emphasizes the recognition and protection of rights, promotion of social inclusion and meaningful participation, while also pursuing and harmonizing economic growth with environmental sustainability through a complementary shift toward a planet-centered development paradigm as advocated by the current Special Rapporteur.

Divided into two core operational sections – Participation in Development and Peace for Development – this submission details the systemic barriers silencing marginalized workforces, analyzes the disruptions caused by regional geopolitical conflicts, integrates direct testimonies from the ground, and sets forth detailed, actionable recommendations to align global migration corridors with international human rights, structural equity, and transnational justice.

The intention is to provide the MFA network’s and our community partners’ (from the Grassroots Forum on Migration Governance) inputs to the Special Rapporteur for consideration of inclusion into the two reports for presentation to the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly.

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