ASEAN members violating declaration on migrant workers

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 10:55pm (Mla time) 02/22/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Advocacy groups said the non-binding nature of an Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) declaration intended to protect the rights of migrant workers made it possible for members of the regional bloc to continue violating these rights.

At the Dr. Alfredo J. Ganapin Advocacy Forum at the University of the Philippines, Ashley William Gois, regional coordinator of the Migrant Forum in Asia, called the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers “regressive” and fell short of the call made in the Vientiane Action Plan for a binding instrument.

Gois cited the current crackdown and imposition of harsher restrictions on migrant workers by Malaysia, which he said violates the spirit of the declaration.

“By now we should be talking about what work has been done,” he said. “The declaration is very regressive considering the human rights violations committed by governments.”

Last month, Malaysia went after undocumented domestic workers in violation of the United Nations International Convention on Human Rights and announced plans to restrict the movement of migrant workers, purportedly to control crime, Gois said.

Thailand, he added, also goes after Burmese migrant workers with regularity.

“The promises of the declaration are not being delivered in substance,” he said.

Noel Esquela of the Center for Migrant Advocacy made the same point.

He said his group welcomed the declaration signed at the 12th ASEAN Summit in January as a positive statement of intent which recognizes the contributions of migrant workers and the need to address abuses against them.

However, he said, the declaration is “non-binding, subject to existing national laws and policies in each ASEAN member-state, and limited to cover only documented migrants and their families already residing with them.”

Of the estimated 2.5 million migrants who work in Malaysia's plantations, construction, and domestic service, some 80,000 to 200,000 are believed to be Filipinos but most are either Indonesian or Nepalese.

Malaysia recently announced plans to introduce new legislation that would restrict migrants to their workplace or living quarters.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch on Wednesday criticized this proposal as a violation of people's right to freedom of movement.

“The resulting isolation would also put them at risk of other abuses, as demonstrated in the case of approximately 300,000 migrant domestic workers in Malaysia,” it said.

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