measures have further heightened the situation of vulnerability. They warn that women migrants face pressures in the form of deteriorating working conditions (lack of physical distancing or protective equipment, increased workloads and overtime work) and also the potential for “an increase in impunity in cases of violence, particularly sexual violence, due to greater difficulties in accessing healthcare and the justice system.”97 • The closure of borders and the disruption of work lead to a decline in both international and domestic remittances, which, in turn, impacts the economic security of women-headed households. Pre-existing patterns of male labour migration in the OSCE region have created the phenomenon of “women left behind” – wives of migrants who become de facto heads of their households and rely on remittance income.98 As a result of border closures and restrictions on movement during the COVID-19 pandemic, women have been hard hit, as remittances are one of their main sources of income. More than half of women respondents to a rapid gender assessment conducted in Albania, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey reported that remittances had decreased in April-May 2020.99 In Kyrgyzstan, where remittance income fell by 30 per cent,100 88 per cent of women (as compared to 47 per cent of men) reported a loss of remittance income. • In conflict-affected areas, restrictions on the freedom of movement disrupt women’s daily lives and put them at risk of harassment in militarized settings. Emergency measures further compound these restrictions. For example, elderly women (who travel to collect state pensions) and single mothers with children already faced difficulties (e.g. denial of passage and security risks at checkpoints) when crossing the contact line in Eastern Ukraine.101 As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all movement across the contact line was suspended, with little advance warning. As a result, many people in settlements along the contact line have become further isolated, leaving them unable to access social benefits, medical services, food or hygiene supplies. Additionally incidents of domestic violence are said to have increased.102 • For refugee, internally displaced and stateless women, limitations on movement and border closures heighten pre-existing vulnerabilities. During the coronavirus crisis, border closures have stranded migrants in overcrowded camps, settlements and reception centres, many 97 Women’s Link Worldwide, “Women’s Link Worldwide Urges the UN to Investigate Human Rights Violations against Migrant Women Performing Seasonal Farm Work in Spain’s Strawberry Industry”, 3 June 2020, <https://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/en/news-and-publications/press-room/women-s-link-worldwide-asks-the-un-to-investigate-urgently-the-human-rights-violations-that-strawberries-women-seasonal-workers-suffer-in-spain>. 98 This situation is characteristic for rural areas of Armenia and Tajikistan, for example. 99 See: UN Women, “The Impact of Covid-19 on Women’s and Men’s Lives and Livelihoods in Europe and Central Asia: Preliminary Results from a Rapid Gender Assessment”, 2020, p. 18., <https://eca.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/ publications/2020/07/the-impact-of-covid19-on-womens-and-mens-lives-and-livelihoods>. 100 See: UN Women, «Отчет по результатам исследования Влияние COVID-19 на положение женщин и мужчин в Кыргызской Республике», op. cit., note 93, p. 46. 101 OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), “Checkpoints along the Contact Line: Reasons Why Civilians Cross and the Challenges They Face, 2019, 28 November 2019, <https://www.osce.org/ special-monitoring-mission-to-ukraine/440504>. 102 Hyde, L., COVID-19 Turns the Clock Back on the War in Ukraine, as Needs Grow, The New Humanitarian website, 20 April 2020, <https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2020/04/20/coronavirus-ukraine-war>. 32