RIGHTS: UN Demands Protection for Migrants

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Dec 18 2000 (IPS) - The United Nations marked the first International Migrants Day on Monday with a global call for governments to ensure the protection of members of this minority wherever they can be found in the world.

Specialised agencies demand greater attention to the human rights of migrants, who are “often smuggled or trafficked and are routinely exploited, mistreated or even killed,” according to the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The treatment immigrants receive is generally inadequate in relation to what they deserve as workers and as human beings, said Juan Somavía, Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Gabriela Rodríguez, meanwhile, have declared that the abuse of immigrants is “a major international problem.”

The Office of the UN High Commissioner reports that immigrant workers currently total some 97 million people, while the ILO estimates there are more than 100 million. The IOM, however, stated in November that the figure runs higher than 150 million.

The ILO calculates there are 20 million migrants in Africa, 18 million in North America, 12 million in Central and South America, seven million in South and Central Asia, nine million in the Middle East and 30 million scattered throughout the nations of Europe.

Emigrants are the unsung heroes of their home countries and of the families they are forced to leave behind, says the ILO.

Every year, migrant workers send a total of 73 billion dollars to their families in their countries of origin, representing savings that are generally quite modest for each worker.

The remittances workers send represent the second largest international financial flow, surpassed only by income from petroleum exports.

For many countries, these remittances are a more important source of cash than is foreign direct investment or international aid.

Somavía stressed that migrant workers make a broad and increasing contribution to the world economy, and provide “valuable services with their labour, furnishing an often invisible subsidy to the national economies that receive them.”

“They work in factories, produce food, provide domestic services, staff hospitals and contribute to a wide range of basic needs, often for low wages and with little recognition for the value of their contribution,” pointed out the ILO chief.

“Migrants are all too often relegated to the dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs that go begging in wealthier economies and where discrimination and ill treatment are rife.”

The ILO reports that immigrants suffer the effects of xenophobia and racism and are frequently the victims of abuse and violence “simply because they are foreigners,” and that such human rights violations have become widespread across the globe.

The declaration of UN High Commissioner Robinson and Special Rapporteur Rodríguez exhorts the world’s nations to ratify the International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.

The treaty, approved in 1990, has not yet obtained the 20 ratifications necessary to enter into force. Human rights officials predict that the five still needed will be obtained within the early months of 2001.

The IOM director, Brunson McKinley, forecasts that “migration will be one of the major policy concerns of the 21st century.”

“In our shrinking world, more and more people will look to migration – temporary or permanent – as a path to employment, education, freedom or other opportunities,” affirmed McKinley.