Skilled to care, forced to work Recognizing the skills profiles of migrant domestic workers in ASEAN amid forced labour and exploitation

This ILO report analyses the skills profiles of migrant domestic workers in ASEAN and how these skills are undervalued, unrecognized and routinely exploited. Drawing on surveys and interviews from Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines, the study documents core skills—childcare, eldercare, housekeeping, cooking, financial management and communication (pp. 16–18)—and contrasts them with low wages, poor working conditions and routine violations. The infographic on page 22 highlights forced-labour risks: excessive working hours, isolation, retention of identity documents, recruitment debt, deception and violence. The study shows that despite being “skilled to care,” workers are structurally prevented from career progression or skill recognition. Recommendations (pp. 38–41) call for stronger skills-recognition systems, ethical recruitment, enforcement of labour rights, social protection portability, and skills-based migration pathways that value domestic work as formal, skilled labour.