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AS MANY
developed countries view migration as a measure to
augment their declining population, the Philippines, as
the fourth world’s largest sending state for migrant
workers will seek commitments from foreign states in
protecting the rights of migrant workers when 192 United
Nations members convene in Manila in October for the
Global Forum on Migration and Development (GMFD).
Esteban
Conejos Jr., foreign undersecretary for migrant workers
affairs, said there are three major discussions in the
second GMFD which will be held in Manila on October 29
and 30. These include migration, development and human
rights; secure and legal migration; and policy,
institutional coherence and partnerships.
“The
Philippines will chair the discussions on migration,
development and human rights to be able to look at how
we can improve things in the protection of human rights
of the migrant workers,” said Conejos in a briefing at
the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
“We will
also focus on the current problems of our overseas
Filipino workers [OFWs] mostly in the Middle East
countries,” said Conejos. He added the discussion is
timely because the United Arab Emirates has agreed to
cochair in the discussion.
The
foreign affairs official spoke on the GMFD matter amid
the latest kidnapping of some 35 Filipino seafarers in
Somalia, the current ban on the deployment of domestic
workers in Jordan due to increasing cases of abuses
against Filipinos there and the issues on human
trafficking, rights abuses against OFWs.
The
Philippines is considered the fourth-largest source of
migrant workers next to India, China and Mexico. There
are more than 8 million Filipino migrant workers abroad,
of which 2 million are in Middle Eastern countries.
According to the GMFD document, countries along the
migration continuum that include origin, transit and
destination share a common obligation in protecting the
rights of migrants.
“Respecting the rights of migrants is especially
relevant for lower skilled labor migrants and also for
female migrants who predominate in some of the most
critical service areas for development and growth in
both high- and lower-income countries, such as nursing,
domestic work and care-giving,” said the discussion
paper on GMFD.
It added
that: “Where this kind of work is inadequately protected
by labor laws, and forms part of the informal labor
market, abuse and exploitation can occur, particularly
gender-specific violations against women and children.”
Meanwhile, Conejos said the second discussion in the
GMFD will focus on secure and legal migration as many
governments raise concern on the worsening cases of
human trafficking mostly of children and women who are
forced to prostitution and slavery.
In the
GMFD discussion paper, it cited the need to establish
clear-cut rules on facilitating legal migration to deter
illicit migrant labor recruitment.
“Enforcing legality can effectively control irregular
migration practices, particularly by smugglers and
traffickers, and protect public security and stability
as well as the human security of migrants, thereby
strengthening the credibility of migration and its
flow-on effects for development,” said the GMFD
document.
It
added: “More regular labor migration programs should
undercut the profitability of smuggling and trafficking,
and reduce the incidence of exploitation and abuse of
migrants and strengthen migrants’ capacities to remit
earnings and other resources to needy families and
communities.
Conejos
said the third discussion on the GMFD will engage UN
member-countries to try to establish policy and
institutional coherence between migration and
development of sending and host countries.
Many
critics in the Philippines look at the exodus of migrant
workers, mostly professionals like doctors, nurses,
teachers and engineers as a factor aggravating the
lingering problem of brain drain.
The
third discussion aims to measure the impact of migration
of people and try to establish institutional links that
would eventually enable both sending and host
governments to benefit from the migration phenomena.
“There
is an urgent need in both origin and host countries for
measurable evidence of these linkages, and for better
identification of the knowledge gaps to enable
government and other policymakers to prioritize their
research needs,” said the GMFD document. |
