APMM
The harsh deportation of Michel Catuira from South Korea last Labor Day is a brazenly repressive act by its government, and shamelessly violates all norms of human rights and social justice as applied to migrants and workers. This shows to what extent the government in Seoul is willing to go to stifle democratic rights in the country, including trampling on its own laws and universally-recognized statutes on human rights.
Last May 1, Catuira arrived at the Incheon International Airport after visiting relatives in the Philippines. Upon presentation of his G1 visa that entitles him to reentry in South Korea while his case is being heard by the local courts, he was told that his previous blacklisted status had not been rescinded, despite getting a later favorable decision from the courts. No amount of self-pleading and of intervention from his lawyer were able to sway the immigration officers, who virtually manhandled him into taking a flight back to Manila that very same day.
On the international level, there are conventions and agreements that should provide protection to the rights of marriage migrants as migrants and also as women. These include provisions under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women.
However, these conventions are not followed or made as frameworks by host countries in formulating their policies on marriage migrants. These policies remain to be essentially restrictive and discriminatory.
The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants sees the move of the Singaporean government to grant foreign domestic workers one rest day per week a positive step towards the recognition andrespect of domestic workers’ rights.
Such a policy, once implemented, will provide FDWs in Singapore the much needed yet long-overdue right to day-off. However, Singapore, a country known for its restrictive policies and curbed democracy, has a long way to go in providing better working conditions for migrant workers, especially foreign domestic workers.
Women OFWs under the banner of GABRIELA Hong Kong held a protest action today at the Philippine Consulate General against what they call as a “dying hope” for Filipino women migrants to go back for good to the Philippines in the face of price hikes, increased government exaction from OFWs and worsening poverty in the country.
“We are doomed to be modern-slaves overseas for life as we carry the increasing financial burden of our families we left behind. We are forced into indebtedness and endure abusive treatment just so we can continue to work abroad and help our loved ones survive,” declared Rowena dela Cruz, vice chairperson of GABRIELA Hong Kong.
Members and friends of the International Migrants alliance (IMA) in Hong Kong held a protest action today in front of the Consulate General of Malaysia to condemn the crackdown operations by the Malaysian government on undocumented migrants.
Chanting "stop the crackdown, now", "no one is illegal", and "respect the rights of migrants", around 25 people marched from Harcourt Garden to the Malaysian Consulate to expose to the Hong Kong public the violations of the rights of migrants in Malaysia and oppose the crackdown.
A study on Filipino foreign domestic workers in global cities, entitled "Globalization, Labor Export and Resistance" has come out as a book recently in the US. Written by Prof. Ligaya Lindio-McGovern and published by Routledge, the volume "examines the aggressive implementation of neoliberal policies of globalization in the Philippines, and how labor export has become a contradictory feature of the country's international political economy while being contested from below."
Further strengthen the movement to counter the GFMD!
Continue to resist commodification of labor and modern-day slavery!
International Migrants Alliance (IMA)
01 December 2011
Since its inception up to its current fifth run, the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) has never professed genuine concern for migrant workers and their families.
In fact, it has only been faithful to its neoliberal design of using migration as a tool to perpetuate the domination of the world’s superpowers – chiefly the United States – and sustain the unjust world order through the continued commodification of migrant labor and the modern-day slavery of migrant workers.
This year’s theme, “Taking Action on Migration and Development – Coherence, Capacity and Cooperation”, is about as vague as it is grandiose.
The Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in its 5th year stands at the crossroads of its existence as a “platform for dialogue and cooperation on international migration and development”. It must bridge the gap between its self-perception and what the most important stakeholders in the process – the migrant workers – see it to be. It must also respond to the fundamental question of its relevance to the whole migration dynamic.
Women marriage migrants unite with women in all sectors around the globe in commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November this year.
Violence against women emanates from the country of origin that perpetuates poverty resulting in marriage migration.
Last September 30, Malaysia was the venue for migrant-serving institutions, grassroots migrant organizations, service providers and migrants’ rights advocates to gather and hold the regional consultation to discuss how they can advance the human rights of undocumented migrants in the Asia Pacific. Discussing at length the developments by which migrants are subjected to unjust and inhumane working conditions that make them eventually undocumented, by which they are illegal and virtually hunted down like hardened criminals.
