9th Regional Conference on Migration
“10 Years of MFA: Looking Back, Moving On”
13-14 September 2004
Women’s Mission Center, Seoul, Korea
We, the 160 participants of the 9th Regional Conference on Migration (RCM) from 20 Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Korea, representing members of the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), and grassroots migrant organizations, unions, labour groups, women’s groups, development organizations, NGOs, international support groups and advocates came together to deliberate on the theme of “Migration for Development and its Feminization Process”, as it impinges on human rights and security of lives of migrant workers in Asia. The 9th RCM was organized by the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) and its national partner, the Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea (JCMK) and Asian Migrant Centre (AMC) on 13-14 September 2004 in Seoul, Korea.
The 9th RCM is a historic gathering as it marks the 10th year of the founding of MFA as an Asian network promoting, advocating, and upholding the rights and dignity of migrants. Among the key achievements that MFA takes pride in are: mobilizing support and advocating for the ratification of the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the ILO Convention 97 and 143; placing at center stage of the international arena the discourse of international labor migration, concern over the growing racism and xenophobia and recognizing the pioneering efforts on migrants’ reintegration in their home countries through mobilizing remittances.
We have come to celebrate the victories / achievements of the 10-year struggle from Hsinchu, Taiwan to Seoul, Korea. We take pride in militant struggles of JCMK that led to:
1. A national legislation to admit and recognize migrant as regular workers;
2. Government compensation to migrants who were victims of industrial accidents;
3. Raising migrant issues as national concern.
We have come together to renew our commitment to ‘live, work and struggle together with the migrant workers in Asia’ (theme of the 1994 founding conference), and to sharpen our understanding, expand our partnership and deepen our collaboration within our diverse mandates, priorities, and even perspectives. Therefore, having focused our discussions on migration and development, globalization and sustainable development, the supremacy of human security over national security, human trafficking and migration, feminization of migration, gender issues in migration, informalization of labour, reintegration and remittances, migrants’ health and well being, and international human rights standards, we the participants call for:
• The repeal of laws discriminating against migrant workers, including “anti-terror laws, detention without trial laws;
• Abolition of compulsory HIV/AIDS and pregnancy testing policies;
• The recognition and regularization of undocumented migrant workers and to stop the trainee system, e.g., Korea and Japan;
• The recognition of foreign domestic workers and entertainers as workers and to be protected under labor laws and to give proper value to their work;
• The respecting and upholding of the full dignity of migrant workers, including the right to be with their families, the right to marry and start families, the right to health care and social services for all migrant workers and their families, and all other rights and protections of migrant workers and their families as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families;
• The establishment of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), bi-lateral and multilateral agreements by sending and receiving countries that ensure the protection of migrant workers’ rights, including the right to association, the right to form or become members of existing unions, and the right of suffrage for migrant workers;
• The prevention of all forms of trafficking, ensuring the rights of the victims of trafficking, including regulation and monitoring of recruitment agencies;
• The right to equal wages for equal work without any form of discrimination, including gender and racial discrimination;
• The implementation of training, savings programs for alternative investments for sustainable development and reintegration programs when migrant workers return to their home countries, at all stages of the migration process;
• The universal ratification and effective implementation of the 1990 UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, to advocate adoption of ILO Conventions and other relevant international instruments;
• An immediate end to the deportation of undocumented migrant workers,
• The regional bodies such as ASEAN, APEC and SAARC to implement policies, guidelines and agreements for the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and their families.
Dated 15 September 2004
Specific recommendations
Our specific recommendations are the following:
A. Premium on human security over national security based on the fundamental respect of human rights and dignity for all
• Establish a consolidated database of migrant workers’ issues and violations of migrants’ human rights to be used for advocacy;
• Strengthen NGOs and civil society organizations as countervailing force to state organs;
• Raise public awareness on migrant workers’ human rights, to change attitudes, practices, perceptions; to sensitize and mobilize the media, judiciary and bureaucracy;
• Promote global solidarity and networking, join global movement against war and for building world peace;
• Take a pro-active response to migrant human rights campaigns; and
• Advocate a multilateral human rights-based approach to migration.
B. Strengthen gender-sensitive responses to migration
• Greater protection for the rapidly increasing number of women migrant workers, upholding their dignity and basic human rights and valuing women’s work through just and fair wages;
• Empower women to assert their rights through education, to break occupational gender stereotypes, to organize and to form unions to advocate for labour protection;
• Lobby for governments to address issue of “brain drain” in countries which send and receive large numbers of health care workers through higher wages for health workers in sending country and compulsory service and compensation by receiving country to improve health and education in sending country;
• Lobby governments of sending countries to create adequate economic opportunities for women to have jobs that provide decent wages and working conditions so that migration becomes an option;
• Launch education campaign to prevent trafficking of women through various modes, including those related to marriage;
• Lobby for universal ratification of 1990 UN migrants’ rights convention which guarantees reunification of migrant families; and
• Call for national policies and legislation to address issues that arise out of inter-cultural marriages, specifically those relating to rights and welfare of children of such marriages.
C. Campaign against the growing trend of informalization of labour
• Develop re-thinking of the traditional roles of unions in order to expand as social movement in each country;
• Document all cases of labour exploitation, and establish database on such specific practices;
• Raise the issue of exploitative and oppressive relations in labour informalization at high-level inter-governmental fora;
• Campaign against the growing trend of informalization of labour, especially in the context of migration; and include trainee system as a practice which contributes to the informalization of labour; and
• Lobby the embassies of sending countries to provide assistance to irregular migrant workers in receiving countries.
D. Promote sustainable development, reduce inequalities within and between countries, and mobilize migrant workers and their remittances toward this end
• Conduct information and education campaign on issues affecting sustainable development and remittances among advocates (WTO-GATS);
• Conduct education campaign among MFA members and migrant advocates to form position on WTO-GATS Mode 4 and formulate lobby documents for the WTO meeting in Hong Kong in 2005; link up MFA members with the on-going networks/movements against global injustice;
• Encourage greater participation in the MSAI program by conducting awareness-raising and capacity building for embassy and consulate staff in regard to migration and reintegration issues;
• Conduct research on MSAI, remittance flows and uses and benefits;
• Intensify MSAI campaign among migrant workers and their families, and lobby local governments to support MSAI program and to include it in pre-departure programs; and
• Conduct information sharing and capacity building training among MFA members in relation to migrant savings programs, including experience exchange programs among members.
E. Greater recognition and upholding of basic human right to health and well-being of all migrants
• Lobby for MOUs between sending and receiving countries and use instruments of regional bodies such as ASEAN, APEC and SAARC for adoption of compulsory health care schemes for migrant workers; advocate for migrants’ access to health services and quality health care;
• Integrate education for greater health and well-being awareness in migrants’ pre-departure training, on-site orientation and return and reintegration programs and activities in sending and receiving countries;
• Provide education and information to develop and advocate healthcare services and for migrant workers and their families;
• Establish sex disaggregated database system in regard to the health of migrant workers, including occupational diseases, reproductive health, living & working conditions, hazards specific to certain employment sectors; and
• Abolition of policies and practices that exclude and discriminate against migrants’ rights to health.
Adopted at the 9th Regional Conference on Migration, 13-16 September 2004, Seoul, Korea.
Names of organizations:
Action Network for Migrants (ACTFORM), Sri Lanka
Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), Bangladesh
All Nepal Women Association (ANWA), Nepal
Anti-Slavery International, Thailand
Asian Migrant Centre (AMC), Hong Kong
CARAM Cambodia, Cambodia
Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA), Philippines
Center for Indonesian Migrant Workers (CIMW), Indonesia
Coalition for Migrants’ Rights (CMR), Hong Kong
Commission of Filipino Migrant Workers (CFMW), Amsterdam
Federation of Trade Unions – Burma (FTUB), Burma
Federation of Indonesian Migrant Worker Organization (FOBMI), Indonesia
Hong Kong Coalition of Indonesian Migrant Workers Organization (KOTKIHO),
Hong Kong
Hope Workers’ Center, Taiwan
Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU), Hong Kong
Institute of Social Sciences in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Jarnas Pekabumi, Indonesia
Joint Committee of Migrant Workers in Korea (JCMK), Korea
Lao Women Union, Laos
Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), Pakistan
Kanlungan Center Foundation, Inc., Philippines
MAP Foundation / Action Network for Migrants, Thailand
Migrant Care, Indonesia
Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), Philippines
Migrant Forum India, India
Migrant Services Center, Sri Lanka
Migrant Workers’ Education and Training Center, China
Migrants Rights International (MRI), Geneva, Switzerland
Society for Christian Reflection, Malaysia
Solidaritas Perempuan, Indonesia
Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ), Japan
St. Francis of Assisi Workers Centre, Singapore
Tenaganita, Malaysia
Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, MMN
Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation, Inc., Philippines
Welfare Association of Repatriated Bangladeshi Employees (WARBE), Bangladesh
Women and Media Collective, Sri Lanka
Women Rehabilitation Center (WOREC), Nepal
