By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Nov 17 1997 (IPS)

The number of undocumented immigrants, attracted by an international market for illegal labour, is on the rise worldwide, according to an Inter-Governmental Working Group which began to meet Monday under UN auspices.

There is a demand for clandestine labour in many countries, to which illegal immigrants respond, said Mexican academician Jorge Bustamante, president of the working group, which will discuss the human rights of migrants until Friday.

The United Nations convened the working group due to concern over growing signs of racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination and inhumane and degrading treatment of migrants in a number of nations.

Of the estimated total of 150 immigrants in the world today, undocumented immigrants are the most vulnerable.

But illegal immigration exists due to the fact that someone in the host country benefits from the presence of such workers, Bustamante stressed at Monday’s opening session.

The international community has the challenge of turning the black labour market into a legal market that provides protection and legal status for immigrants, he said.

However, the attitude of countries that insist on treating undocumented workers as if they were the responsibility of the police hinders policies of regularisation of the status of illegal immigrants, asserted Bustamante, a professor at the University of Notre Dame in the United States. “I do not know of any country that has resolved the problem of illegal immigrants through the police,” he added.

What is needed are international approaches to the problem, he underlined, because internal solutions, especially police-based ones, are no remedy.

The paradox is that illegal immigrants create wealth in the same countries whose laws they are breaking, said Bustamante.

Migrant women are another sector vulnerable to racist and xenophobic aggression. Peter Schatzer, the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) director of foreign relations and information, put the nuymber of female migrants at 50 million.

Schatzer recommended that the working group also discuss issues related to the return of emigrants to their country of origin, trafficking of migrants and gender discrimination.

The experts and government representatives will evaluate proposals for collecting data on discrimination against immigrants and establish mechanisms to monitor the phenomenon.

Legal expert R. K. Jenny, with the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, pointed out that there was no non-governmental organisation specialising in the prevention and monitoring of that specific category of human rights violations.

Jenny said illegal immigration was on the rise because states were stepping up restrictions and repressive measures.

A 1997 report by Maurice Glele-Ahanhanzo, special UN rapporteur on modern forms of racism, discrimination and xenophobia, also points to the rise in intolerance across the world, which it says has given rise to discriminatory measures and xenophobic reactions.

The immigrant has become an easy scapegoat for those feeling the burden of economic crisis and insecurity everywhere, said Glele-Ahanhanzo.

Xenophobia is increasing at a disturbing pace, alongside indifference of public opinion in the democratic world, which proclaims itself the defender of civilisation and champion of human dignity, he stressed.

The report, one of the documents being studied by the working group, says detention camps in which undocumented foreign nationals are housed prior to their deportation are mushrooming throughout the world, often providing unacceptable living conditions.

Meanwhile, “electric walls” are springing up along borders, and those who attempt to cross them are submitted to harsh treatment, the study adds.

The working group will meet again Feb. 16-20, 1998 to draft its report for the Human Rights Commission.

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