Pact for migrant workers should be legally binding, ASEAN leaders told


A militant pro-migrant group on Tuesday urged leaders who will sign the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers to make the instrument legally-binding.
Migrante International reasoned in a statement that the implementation of the consensus must be mandatory for member states to make up for the lack of "comprehensive legislative protection of migrant workers in destination countries where most violations" happen.
"If the implementation is optional for member states, migrant workers will not be able to maximize its benefits wherever they may work or migrate, however strong the principles and provisions may be," the group said.
The ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers aims to uphold fair treatment of migrant workers and their right to fair salary and benefits, grant family members visitation rights, prohibit passport seizure, prevent overcharging on recruitment fees, and their right to join trade unions and organizations.
Hailed as the "centerpiece" of the Philippines' chairmanship of the ASEAN Summit, the implementation of the agreement is optional, as was the ASEAN Declaration of the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers passed during the country's chairmanship in 2007.
Migrante pointed out that drafting the agreement had come to an impasse since 2009 after members of the committee failed to agree on its provisions, especially on legally-binding items.
"The dispute involves whether the instrument will be legally-binding, will protect undocumented or irregular migrant workers, will cover migrants’ family members and will cover migrant workers who are not from ASEAN member states," Migrante said.
Most of the opposition, it added, come from the concept of "non-interference" instituted as respecting the state sovereignty of member nations and catering to "regional particularities."
"The emphasis on ‘regional particularities’, principles of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘non-interference’ allowed the perpetuation of human rights violations in deference to the goals of regional and inter-governmental collaboration and economic development," Migrante said.
For the consensus to be acceptable, the group stressed that ASEAN migrant workers must be allowed to review the consensus and give their input on the "centerpiece" agreement.
It must also include undocumented migrant workers in its protective clauses and the families of migrant workers, under the premise of upholding human rights standards, and ways to address the root causes of migration.
"Migrante International reiterates that the most basic right of migrant workers is to be able to have decent, regular work and livelihood at home without having to seek these in other countries under likely very difficult conditions," they said.
"Addressing these root causes and implementing policies that prevent forced migration are vital and should proceed astride more immediate efforts to advance migrant workers’ rights," Migrante added.
Citing numbers from the World Bank, an International Labor Organization (ILO) study showed that there were 6,788,100 intraregional migrants from ASEAN member states within the ASEAN region. Of these were 449,300 Filipinos. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

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