Migrant workers from around the world protest institutionalization of migration

Migrant groups from several nations joined labor unions and civic organizations in the opening of the first International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) at the Bayview Park Hotel, Manila.

The delegates converged at the forum to discuss issues hounding refugees and migrants the world over, and to express their dismay against the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD).

"The GFMD will bring together government representatives from close to 200 countries, big business interests and their allied non-government organizations to discuss labor migration and development," Dr Carol Araullo, chairperson of Bagong Alyansan Makabayan (BAYAN) said. "But in the light of the severe global financial crisis and economic slowdown, the GFMD agenda appears to be nothing more than an attempt to squeeze more gains from migrant labor through various anti-migrant schemes and in the guise of promoting development."

The IAMR is a collaborative effort of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) and Migrante International, with the support of Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, IBON International, International League of Peoples' Struggles, Bayan Philippines, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development - Task Force on Labor and Migration and CARAM Asia.

The international gathering aims to develop awareness on the GFMD process, critically discuss and analyze the impact of neo-liberal globalization, and build process of attaining the migrant consensus as the legitimate and genuine platform of migrants to the GFMD, and help strengthen bonds among migrants, refugees and advocates.

The ceremony was keynoted by IBON director, Antonio Tujan Jr. who presented three context on analysis; the traditions of forced of forced migration, traditions of migrants and refugees, and lastly, the impact of remittances and separation.

"The refugee is the ultimate forced migrant. But increasingly there are economic and social conditions that force migration," Tujan said. "Therefore, when people talk of migration of people seeking greener pastures, the reality is not of people seeking such, but people trying to survive."

"Migration is a genuine free choice but only in the context of developed societies."

He said that France is one of the top five remittance sending countries.

"The French leave not because they are forced to but because it is their genuine free will," Tujan mentioned.

One of the assembly's special guests, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, Jorge Bustamante of Mexico, said that economic stability rests in the hands of governments, and not the responsibility of migrants.

"Remittances should be for the migrants not politicians," Bustamante added.

Former laborers in South Korea, Sonny Planas of Bicol Association in Korea, Freddie Castillo and Conrado Llanes of Seoul Migrants Association, and Victor Leoncio of the Federation of Filipino Workers in Korea, recounted their harrowing experiences as the South Korean government intensified the crackdown on illegal migrants.

The four workers, who had been working in Korea for more than five years, told how authorities treated them as criminals--handcuffed and sent to detention before being deported back to he Philippines. Castillo, who brought his wife and child to the assembly, said that the current migrant worker system is disadvantageous to the laborer, which is why many choose to cross borders illegally.

The Philippine Embassy in South Korea, according to them, does not recognize the plight of undocumented Filipino workers in the country.

"We even have to call their attention to work on the repatriation of our countrymen who have died in South Korea."

The four men have been rendered jobless since being sent back to the Philppines between July and October 2008.

Meanwhile, a West African man narrated stories of extreme migration where his countrymen (Togo) would take a year-long journey to North Africa and cross the Mediterranean to Europe only to die even before reaching destination.

The Philippine Labor Code institituonalized migration in 1974 under the Marcos regime. More than 200 million men, women and children, are forced to migrate annually, remitting close to US$2.5 trillion to their loved ones in their homelands.

The GFMD is an initiative of the international community to address the migration and development interconnections in practical and action-oriented ways.  It marks the culmination of more than a decade of international discussion on the growing importance of these linkages, and the progressive acknowledgement of the need to address the policy implications and responses in a multilateral framework.

The GFMD is being held at the Philippine International Convention Center from Oct 27 to 30. Delegates of the IAMR plan a zero-remittance action and street demonstration tomorrow, October 29, to protest the global forum.