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PHILIPPINES: ‘Migrants Deserve Better From Host, Home Countries’

Prime Sarmiento*

MANILA, Oct 30 2008 (IPS) - Government officials and civil society members from 163 countries, gathered here for a meeting on migration, agreed Thursday that it was time to look beyond economic benefits and give the phenomenon ‘human face’.

As the four-day ‘Second Global Forum on Migration and Development’ drew to a close, the consensus was that there needed to be a ‘’rights-based approach’’ to migrant workers, taking into consideration the benefits they bring to both home and host countries.

The focus of this conference was to put a “spotlight on the human face of migration and the human development aspect of (economic) development,” Esteban Conejos, Jr, Philippine foreign affairs undersecretary and forum chairman, said.

The debate, Conejos said, had shifted “from the usual rational arguments of economic benefits and back to the migrants, their families and their communities.’’

William Lacy Swing, director-general of the International Organisation For Migration (IOM), in a statement issued Wednesday, when the section for officials opened, said that respect for the human rights of migrants was the ‘’foundation for the positive contributions of migration to the development of countries of origins and countries of destination’’.

Ministers who participated in the forum went beyond proposing to share and compile best practices on how to protect migrant workers’ rights. They also agreed on the need to formulate bilateral agreements and ratify relevant covenants such as the 1990 Migrant Workers Convention which has been ratified by just 37 countries.

Reflecting the rise in the numbers of female migrant workers, protection of women’s rights was sought to be placed high on the agenda by civil society representatives meeting on Monday and Tuesday, ahead of the officials’ section of the forum.

Their concerns and recommendations were submitted to Conejos and Peter Sutherland, special representative to the U.N. secretary-general on migration and development.

At a press conference held at the end of the forum, Conejos laid emphasis on the interface between governments and NGOs saying it was to civil society that knew the realities on the ground and were approached by migrant workers for their various problems.

The forum is informal and not legally-binding but provides an opportunity for states to come together and discuss issues around migration and how can it contribute best to the development of both the labour sending and labour receiving countries. Its formation was proposed by the U.N. secretary-general and his special representative at the High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in 2006.

There are about 100 million migrant workers worldwide, most of whom crossed borders to provide a better life for their families. Migrants’ remittances amount to 250 billion US dollars annually and the World Bank estimates that a 10 percent increase in remittances as a proportion of a country’s GDP would result in a 1.6 percent reduction in the number of people living in poverty in that country.

Yet, despite their huge contributions, migrant workers suffer from various abuses – from unpaid salaries to sexual harassment. Women, who comprise half of the total migrant labour population, are especially vulnerable.

Most of the migrant women are employed as domestic workers and entertainers. The informal labour sector is difficult to monitor and regulate, making women vulnerable to abuse.

While the need to protect women migrant workers was touched upon at the official meetings, governments seemed to prefer dealing with rights of migrant workers in general.

“Women migrant rights were not properly discussed in the forum,” said Sharu Joshi Shrestha, regional programme officer for migration at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

“Women’s concerns are different. They need different security mechanisms,” she said. While most women work as domestic workers, neither labour sending nor receiving countries have policies to protect them, Shrestha said. “How can you lobby for the rights of domestic workers in other countries if your own country doesn’t have that kind of policy?’’

There was also concern that dialogue at the forum did not guarantee new policies. No treaties were signed to form an institutional framework to help protect migrant rights.

Sutherland noted that the forum involved a “respectful conversation among countries” and was one in which states were saying what they were doing about migrants rather than telling other states what they should be doing.

Other NGOs organised a parallel conference where they were deeply critical of the forum.

The Peoples’ Global Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights said: ‘’We affirm the principle that the state should be primarily responsible in protecting human rights, providing social services, and promoting people-centered development. We reiterate our call to put GFMD [forum] under the ambit of the U.N. to ensure that it adheres to, and builds upon, the existing human rights frameworks and obligations, including the right to development commitment.”

Patricia Sto. Tomas, chairwoman of the Development Bank of the Philippines and general rapporteur of the roundtable discussion in the officials meeting, noted that participants have expressed the need for a “political will to make shared responsibility of protecting migrant rights operational”.

Linda Wirth, ILO country director for the Philippines, believes that one of the positive outcomes of the forum was that it “opened up dialogue between countries’’.

“There are different views on both sides. There are real problems facing different countries. We need to learn from each other about things that work and things that don’t work,’’ Wirth said.

(*This feature was produced by IPS Asia-Pacific under a series on gender and development, with the support of UNIFEM East and South-east Asia Regional Office.)