W O R L D
Rich Nations Rebuff Treaty Protecting Migrant Workers
by Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS — A new United Nations convention, which came into force Jul. 1, is aimed at protecting over 175 million migrant workers worldwide who are often deprived of their basic legal and human rights.
But the impact of the convention, say human rights organisations, is limited by the fact that only 22 out of the 191 U.N. member states have ratified it.
"To date, not one industrialised country has ratified the convention, despite the important contributions migrant workers make to their economies," said Rory Mungoven of Human Rights Watch.
"Some developed countries have been reticent about joining the convention for fear that it may afford too many rights and entitlements to undocumented migrants," he said.
The treaty — titled the International Convention on the Protection of Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families — was originally adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in December 1990.
But it took nearly 13 years for the convention to receive the 20 ratifications it needed to become international law. As of Jul. 1, 22 countries have ratified the convention and 17 have signed it.
The 22 countries ratifying the treaty include Egypt, Morocco, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Ghana, Bolivia, Uruguay, Senegal, Uganda and Guatemala — all countries whose migrant workers are employed either in the Middle East, Western Europe or North America.
Mungoven said the convention is by no means "soft" on illegal immigration. "All it asks is that undocumented migrants be treated in full compliance with the law, and not subjected to abuse."
Robert Paiva of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), however, sees a slightly positive side to it. "The entry into force of the convention is a first step which in the immediate term will make a concrete difference in the lives of a limited number of migrants in a few countries," he said.
"But just as important is to keep sight of the momentum that has been building in the past couple of years which has led to this entry into force occurring at all," Paiva told IPS.
At least 60 percent of the world's migrants live or work in Europe or North America. The rest live in countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Japan, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
Paiva said that the fact that industrial nations have shied away from the treaty reflects, among other things, how charged the issue of immigration and immigrants can be, particularly in tough economic times.
"When nationalistic and xenophobic tendencies are on the rise in many parts of the world, it is all the more difficult to build the political will for ratification of a convention seen to favour 'foreigners'," he added.
Another factor, he pointed out, is that many countries "receiving" migrant workers say their own national legislation provides guarantees and benefits at least equivalent to those in the convention, and they thus see no need to ratify the treaty.
Mungoven said that fears of terrorism and economic insecurity have also prompted a backlash against migrants and other foreigners in many countries. "Migrant workers are vulnerable at the best of times, but they now need protection more than ever."
He warned that many governments, including Australia and Spain, equate efforts to curb illegal immigration with the international campaign against terrorism.
In the United States, he said, hundreds of non-citizens of mostly Arab and South Asian descent have been detained, often arbitrarily, by the immigration service as part of the government's investigation into the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001.
Paiva said his organisation believes that all countries have a shared interest in seeing migration better managed, and a key element in better management is ensuring the safety and dignity of migrants — whatever their legal status.
"We welcome the entry into force of the convention both for what it adds concretely to the corpus of international law protecting the rights of migrant workers and their families — despite the limited number of ratifications to date — and for the opportunity it provides to raise consciousness about how migrants are frequently treated and to combat that," he added.
The convention, he added, will provide a new sense of empowerment amongst many migrant groups, and a feeling that they can affect how they are treated..
"As they lobby, and sensitise their own governments (of countries of origin), they put the issue of how migrants are treated squarely on a bilateral and regional political agenda. That cannot fail to have a positive effect over time," Paiva added.
But most of the migrant workers, according to human rights groups, are being deprived of their basic legal and human rights by employers who either hold them in servitude or force them to work in sweat shops for paltry wages.
The convention is aimed at protecting migrant workers by giving them fundamental rights such as the right to form associations and trade unions, the right of freedom of expression and religion, the right to due process, as well as equal treatment with nationals in respect of economic and social rights.
According to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), one person out of 35 is a migrant.
The number of people who are living and working in a country other than their own is estimated at about 175 million people, which represents about three percent of the world's population.
