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Thursday, October 30, 2008
UN chief says global slowdown hurting migrants
MANILA -- Protecting the rights and livelihoods of millions of migrant workers during the global slowdown will benefit economies, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, while warning that some will lose jobs.
Ban said as countries slip into recession, migration flows have started to reverse, with foreign laborers leaving the construction and tourism sectors in industrialized nations.
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He cited a slowdown in remittances -- the backbone of poor nations' economies like the Philippines -- and the risk of discrimination as national financial crises caused a rise in unemployment, personal hardship and anxiety.
"It would be naive to think the current crisis will have no effect on the movement of people across borders and on how our public perceive migration and the migrants in their midst," Ban told an international conference on strengthening overseas workers' rights in Manila.
Rather than a curse, Ban said migration should be seen as a tool to lift economies because human mobility makes them more efficient "even if they are not growing by ensuring that the right skills can reach the right places at the right time."
Migration "also helps redress the enormous imbalances that have led to harsh economic realities" as the developing world's young adults provide a counterbalance to an aging and shrinking population in the developed nations, he said.
Ban said constraining migration will only make lives more miserable for an estimated 200 million laborers, but will never stop them from crossing borders.
"This will undermine confidence in our ability to govern - confidence that has already been damaged by the financial crisis," he said.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which hosted the Global Forum on Migration and Development, also called on governments to strengthen laws to protect migrant workers, saying "All eyes may be glued to stock markets, but we can't lose sight of the poor."
With more than 8 million overseas workers, the Philippines is among the world's top exporters of human labor, together with Mexico, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Some $14 billion remittances last year amounted to 10 percent of the Philippines' gross domestic product.
Arroyo said earlier that Filipino workers have not been affected yet by the global financial storm.
Migrants Protection Act
President Arroyo also called on governments to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families in the light of the global economic crunch.
She said the Philippines is ready to champion the cause of migrant workers from establishing one of the "best regulated expatriate workers programs" from pre-departure orientations and training to post-employment reintegration and trainings, to the strengthening of migrant workers protection especially against illegal "domestic recruiters and overseas employers, agents and officials, and protection from physical harm."
"We urge all countries which have not yet done so to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. As we campaign for that, we are having this global forum because coordinated action among nations is the better path than doing it alone," she added.
She added that everyone should give value to the contributions of all workers whether migrants and non-migrants, and ensure of equal and non-discrimination treatment.
"But we long for the day when going abroad for a job is a career option not the only choice for a Filipino worker, our economic plans are designed to allow the Philippines to break out of this cycle, that is why we remain so stubbornly focused on the economy," she said.
Anti-illegal recruitment body formed
To further ensure the protection of the Filipino expatriates, especially against illegal recruiters, Arroyo also created a nine-man Presidential Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force chaired by Vice President Noli de Castro.
Arroyo also named as vice chairman the commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and as members the secretaries of foreign affairs, justice and labor departments.
Also tapped as task force members are the head of the police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Anti Transnational Division (CIDG-ATD), the director of the National Bureau of Investigation, the administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, and the general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority.
Initial funding for the task force would be sourced from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, but other agencies involved in the campaign against illegal recruitment are authorized to allocate their existing funds when necessary.
The President said it is important to create such a task force as the problem of illegal recruitment is serious, persistent, and "has already reached alarming proportion as to cause public concern." (AP/JMR/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (October 30, 2008 issue)
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