Statement of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants for the International Migrants Day

Amidst the crisis, migrants must strengthen ranks and intensify resistance against attacks to rights

Statement of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants for the International Migrants Day (December 18)

17 December 2009

The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) stands with grassroots migrant workers in the region and in the world in commemorating the International Migrants Day. As the world and many countries in the Asia-Pacific region reel from the economic crunch, this year’s commemoration becomes even more significant with the call for migrant workers, immigrants and refugees to strengthen resistance against attacks – current and impending – to their rights and wellbeing.

Asia-Pacific region including the Middle East is already a major source of migrant workers around the world and also a major destination. In 2005, the combined number of migrant workers from China, India and the Philippines was 62 million of the 214 million migrant workers worldwide. Intra-regional flows of migrants is also high in Asia-Pacific as Indonesians going to Malaysia, influx of Filipinos to countries in the Middles East or Burmese refugees in Thailand indicate.

Migrant workers in the region are now experiencing more hardships as their labour, cival, social and political rights are subjected to attacks.

South Korea, which has more than a million foreign residents, has copied the example of Taiwan by dropping the free board and lodging in the employment contracts of foreign workers under its Employment Permit System. The government has also intensified crackdowns against undocumented migrant workers and leaders of organizations and unions of migrants have been systematically arrested and deported to weaken the organized ranks of migrants.

In Macau, the government has implemented a six-month re-entry ban for those who could not finish their contracts. A similar policy exists in Arab countries.

Countries in the Middle East have cut down the numbers of its foreign workers partly to appease its local populace and because it is also affected by the crisis. Many cases of abuses against migrants, especially in Saudi Arabia, remain to be unresolved oftentimes with the aggrieved migrant workers the ones landing in jail or even sentenced to death.

The Hong Kong government, meanwhile, has stubbornly refused to include foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in its proposal for a statutory minimum wage and has continued its misinformation campaign so the HK public will accept such an unjust and discriminatory decision. FDWs’ wage in Hong Kong is still very much tightly-bound in the unjust, arbitrary and un-transparent Minimum Allowable Wage (MAW).

Aside from the resulting attacks to the rights of migrants, the economic crisis also breeds widespread displacement in migrant-sending countries that forces millions more of people to go abroad and seek work.

India for example, is talking with the European Union (EU) to ease migrant worker restrictions in the continent. It has already established a labor mobility agreement with Denmark to supply it with skilled migrants.

The Philippine government, on the other hand, claims that deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in 2008 increased by 14% from the previous year as its personnel abroad relentlessly market Filipino labor. It is also very active in forging bilateral labour agreements to ensure the smooth and bigger deployment of Filipino migrants.

The call to intensify the struggles of migrants is most timely and necessary. To do so, the ranks of organized migrant workers in various levels and in different forms must be built and strengthened. It is only through the strengthening of the grassroots migrant’s movement will the struggle for the rights and wellbeing of migrant workers advance.

The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) vows to continue assisting grassroots migrant workers in empowering themselves. We are very happy to note that with the establishment of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA), grassroots migrants are now asserting their voice in different fields of struggles.

It is very important for the IMA to further strengthen and expand its ranks and the APMM is ready to do our part as an advocate for the rights of migrants to help the grassroots in the realization of an IMA formation in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.

We commemorate the International Migrants’ Day with vigilance for we recognize the bleak future of migrant workers. However, we also remember this historic day confident that the movement of grassroots migrants will ensure that their voices are heard, their issues are addressed, and their dream of a better social system is achieved.

For reference: Ramon Bultron, Managing Director, Tel. No.: 852-94773141

Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), No.2 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR Tel(852) 2723-7536 Fax (852) 2735-4559 General E-mail: apmm@hknet.com

Managing Director: director@apmigrants.org
Women's Program: women@apmigrants.org
Advocacy Program: advocacy@apmigrants.org
Research and Publication: publications@apmigrants.org

www.apmigrants.org

"We dream of a society where families are not broken up by the urgent need for survival. We dream and will actively work for a homeland where there is opportunity for everyone to live a decent and humane life."

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