Friday, September 18, 2015
Listening, watching and speaking out: Acting in solidarity with migrants and asylum seekers
Listening, watching and speaking out:
Acting in solidarity with migrants and asylum seekers
The unfolding chaotic and distressing situation in Europe
largely stems from the dominance and longevity of government policies
focused on securitisation aimed at deterring migrants and asylum seekers from
entering.
This continues to lead to untold human suffering
and many deaths.
In recent weeks migrants and asylum seekers have protested
and marched in Europe standing up for their rights and demanding humane
treatment.
“If we
could go anywhere else we would, but we have family in... I need to be with
them”
“Why are they making me risk my life
to be with my family when I know I should get asylum if I get there?”
“Freedom, freedom, we
want peace.”
“Stopped waiting,
started walking”
“We walk, we walk…. We
make our own decisions, not wait for solutions”
“We are people too”
People begun to listen and a movement of solidarity has begun
offering a ‘welcome’, transport, voluntary assistance and a place in their
homes.
There have been petitions and demonstrations in solidarity
in Europe, around the world and online calling to:
save lives, protect people, change mindsets, recognise ‘our
common humanity’,
open borders, ‘welcome refugees’; recognise the contributions
and labour demand for migrants and refugees; take a stand for ‘what type of community,
society we want to be’; an end to policies that separate families and to put a
‘heart’ back into policy making.
They have also made visible EU states complicity in the
creation of many of the ‘root causes’ for peoples movement for protection and
better livelihoods that means that they particularly have a responsibility to
act.
Now is the time to unite and continue the call for human rights-based migration policies with decriminalisation and safe and legal routes for migrants and asylum seekers.
Join the people’s
movement – Stand up for all migrants! Act in solidarity with them!
Monday, September 14, 2015
Closer to Home: Calling Again for Solidarity with All Migrants!
07.09.2015
Closer
to Home: Calling Again for Solidarity with All Migrants!
We mourn and are
deeply saddened by the loss of life of 61 people from Indonesia who drowned
travelling in an overcrowded boat in poor weather. They were attempting to
return home from Malaysia to Tanjong
Balai, Indonesia to share the
Eid al-Adha holiday with their families. Amongst the dead were 37 men, 23 women and a young girl,
whilst 20 were rescued by fisherman and a search and rescue operation.
Malaysia’s refusal
to officially recognise its true demand for labour in its economy contributes
to the creation of these undocumented workers, who can be exploited as cheap
labour without social protection. There is estimated to be up to 2 million undocumented Indonesian
migrants workers in Malaysia. Denied
safe and legal routes these low-income workers are forced to make dangerous
clandestine journeys resulting repeatedly in tragic preventable deaths.
Untold deaths at
sea of migrants are appallingly becoming a familiar sickening phenomenon in the
region (and elsewhere in the world) – many Rohingya have died trying to escape
systematic persecution for decades; many people have died over the years on
perilous sea journeys as undocumented migrants, with smugglers or at the hands
of human traffickers; or as forced labour in the fishing industries. Where is
the justice for all these deaths? The daily reality for too many low-income migrant workers continues to
be living in fear and face discrimination, exploitation, violence and death.
Now is the time to put people before profit!
These human tragedies of migrants that
spark media frenzy are in reality often the latest exposure of long-standing
situations that represent in part states’ resistance to: develop and enforce rights-based migration policies,
recognise labour demand and migrants contributions; and respond and guarantee
rights of asylum seekers fleeing war and persecution. This visibility of these
human rights violations demonstrates there must be a strengthened call to
protect through prevention.
We
must act to provide and ensure migrants can live in dignity without risking
their lives.
In response to the
rising number of deaths of migrants we often rightly call for recognition of
our common humanity to act. However the credibility of this call will be
weakened if we don’t also insist that it is regardless of immigration status,
nationality, religion, race, gender or any other status of migrants.
We must value all human life equally, everywhere.
We reiterate our Regional Call for
Migrants’ Rights:
Now is
the time for ASEAN member states to demonstrate the collective political will
to convert responsibility into practice and demonstrate a commitment to the
rights-based protection and access to justice of all migrants.
Now is
the time for ASEAN to show solidarity, respect for human rights for all and
move beyond rhetoric to abide with the principle of being people-centred.
We urge the entire ASEAN community to unite
and be in solidarity all migrants
- Remain vigilant and steadfast in ending
these injustices against migrants.
Let us always act in solidarity to guarantee the
rights of all migrants
to protection and justice everywhere in the world
Kanlungan Centre Foundation, Inc.
77
K-10 Street, East Kamias, Quezon City
Philippines
Website:
www.kanlungan.org
Email:
kanlungan2008@gmail.com
In Solidarity with All Migrants and Asylum-Seekers
5.9.2015
In Solidarity with All
Migrants and Asylum-Seekers
We mourn and are deeply
saddened by the image of a Syrian toddler named Aylan Kurdi who drowned whilst
trying to cross the sea to seek refuge from his war torn country. Aylan was
just one of many migrants and asylum-seekers around the world who struggle
everyday to escape intolerable situations and seek a dignified life worth
living. Whilst asylum-seekers flee war and persecution, there are also many
migrants everyday escaping poverty, abusive and exploitive workplaces and
forced labour that also demand our compassion and action on their rights.
Migration policies
focused on securitisation with minimal humanitarian intervention have dominated
over rights-based policy for too long, leading to an enormous number of deaths
and untold human suffering. Blocking land borders by building fences between
Morocco and Spain has led to migrants risking their lives and dying in
appalling numbers by taking the alternate route across the Mediterranean Sea. The
UK government has responded only with fences to the people’s suffering in
Calais. Whilst Hungary is building fences and blocking the travel of asylum-seekers
and detaining them in camps; rather than organising their transport to European
countries like Germany and Sweden who are fulfilling their duty to guarantee rights
and provide protection.
Labeling the situation a
‘migrant crisis’ and now ‘refugee crisis’ has contributed to the justification
of securitisation policies. Unfortunately this also conflates with humanitarian
migrant organisations use of ‘crisis’ language in their rush to help.
In reality, 86 percent
of the world’s refugees are living in developing countries. The influx of
migrants into Europe in 2015 is only 0.068
percent of the EU's population, thus there is capacity to accept them. These
situations are not something that have suddenly happened - they have been going
on for a long duration with states lacking the political will to act and
cooperate on recommendations for safe and legal routes for migrants and asylum-seekers.
Instead the smugglers have organised their unsafe perilous journeys or they
have fallen victim to human traffickers leading to untold human tragedies.
Reframing the people as refugees rather than migrants has also contributed
finally towards more compassion and greater pressure on Governments to act with
campaigns such as “Refugees Welcome”. As this builds there is immediate relief
that asylum-seekers may now receive a
more united EU response to recognise and guarantee their rights under the 1951
International Convention on the Status of Refugees. Hopefully given the massive
resettlement that is currently required in the world, it will also ignite
similar campaigns elsewhere in rich and developed countries.
What will be the impact
of this on anti-migrant rhetoric and discourse that undermines rights? Kalungan
is concerned that in a similar way to the so-called ‘boat crisis’ in South East
Asia, that there is a false dichotomy being constructed between migrants and
refugees, with the latter being privileged as ‘more deserving’ of our empathy
and protection. Bangladeshis who suffered at the hands of human traffickers had
rights too and were no less deserving of our compassion and rights-based
intervention than the Rohingya. We must challenge this construction to avoid
negative long-term effects in the politics of protection of migrants.
Let us act in solidarity with all migrants!
We call for the following for all migrants and asylum-seekers in
Europe:
1.
Immediately expand and
intensify the search and rescue operations of the women, men and children,
whose lives remain at risk at sea in overcrowded boats.
2.
Provide organised
transportation to countries fulfilling their duty to guarantee their right to
asylum.
3.
Provide rights-based protection
in all EU countries and immediate medical attention with state funding.
4.
Release those who were
inhumanely confined in detention. Provide humane treatment and safe
open accommodation for all.
5.
Comply with the obligation to
protect children as per the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, (1989).
6.
Do not send them back to face
persecution and death - Respect the norm of non-refoulement.
7.
Facilitate access to justice
with free legal services.
8.
Monitor and protect these
people from any further human rights violations.
Also,
9.
Guarantee their rights under
the 1951 International Convention on the Status of Refugees - grant asylum, not
just humanitarian rescue and assistance.
10.
Challenge consistently any
dehumanising anti-migrant language and behaviours, including myths and negative
stereotypes.
11.
Revoke laws that prevent family
reunification
12.
Suspend the Dublin
Regulation, under which the EU country where a migrant first arrives is supposed
to process the migrant's asylum claim.
13.
Act now to create a comprehensive,
co-ordinated and ambitious regional binding solution for safe and legal routes
for all migrants into Europe. Do not externalize the problem risking even worse
human rights violations.
Recognising our common
humanity regardless of nationality, race, religion or other status
Let us always act in solidarity to guarantee
the rights of all migrants to protection and justice everywhere in the world.
Kanlungan Centre Foundation Inc.
77
K-10 Street, East Kamias, Quezon City
Philippines
Website:
www.kanlungan.org
Email:
kanlungan2008@gmail.com
Migrants’ Challenge to the Philippines Bureau of Customs
26.08.2015
Migrants’
Challenge to the Philippines Bureau of Customs
‘Handle with
care’ - this is the note usually attached to the balikbayan box. This
box has come to represent the traditional way Filipino migrants extend their
love and affection to their loved ones back home. The sacrifices of every
migrant worker is somewhat eased whenever they connect with their families by sending
their remittances and the much awaited balikbayan box.
The recent attempt by the Bureau of Customs,
headed by Commissioner Alberto
Lina to impose random physical inspection of balikbayan boxes
in order to counteract smuggling and loss of revenue shows
blatant disrespect for this important family tradition and all migrant
workers. These hardworking people were responsible for a record-high contribution of USD 24.3
billion in remittances in 2014, yet they are disrespected by being likened to
smugglers and their important family connection pursued for careless disruption.
What did this proposal
reveal about the political issues and financial interests that surround this
issue?
1. Commissioner Lina instead of targeting the
migrant workers and tarnishing them
with petty criminality, should focus on the big-time smugglers and the enormous
amounts of vital revenue lost to our impoverished people. How much revenue is
lost on smuggled luxury cars and items for the rich? How was it possible that large containers of
waste coming from Canada were not detected by our customs and able to enter
the country freely? We want
to see big smugglers put behind
bars first, then perhaps the
office might gain some credibility.
2. Forwarding companies
like that of Commissioner
Lina’s business Air 21 , which has an average annual shipment
of 5 million balikbayan boxes would
definitely have benefited from the stricter rules. Private forwarding
companies already have easy
access to their
customers data thanks to the poor data protection
associated with tracking of boxes.
Subsequently, migrant workers are now
routinely bombarded with advertising. Additionally inappropriate use of this
data by his company allows government agencies to forward documents and notices
pertaining to labour cases to migrants – how much profit does his company make
from this? How much revenue is lost to
the duty exception given to selected forwarders?
3. There are
numerous complaints of lost and damaged
balikbayan boxes from migrants
and their families. Is the
government not concerned about the desecration of the box that connects
filipino families? What is the Bureau
doing about minimising delay in delivery due to inspection, compensating for
lost and stolen items and holding those responsible to account? What legal mechanism
is there for migrant workers voice to be heard, apart from resorting to social
media to complain?
4. Before subjecting the
migrants care packages to scutiny, let us first open the accounts of employees
and all officials working in the bureau. For every Filipino it is an open secret that the Bureau
of Customs is tainted
with corruption and bribery
issues. Even shippers and cargo forwarders will attest
to the rampant
corruption. Whilst migrant workers and their activities come under ever
increasing surveillance and control, transparency and accountability of
government agencies continues to remain elusive.
5. It is appalling that
this issue has been exploited by
political rivals of the current
administration and even aspiring
presidential candidates to boost
their political campaigns. This insensitivity demonstrates how politicians view the migrant
workers in general: as ‘milking cows’
for remittances and later as
captured votes for the election.
Shame on politician’s for using this emotive issue for migrants to advance
their political agenda!
There must end to the
creation of any policies that place an additional burden on migrant workers.
Let us see evidence of real commitment to the social welfare of these filipinos
rather than just viewing them through an economic lens. The government’s focus should be to
prioritize services offered to migrant
workers and their families, especially women
migrant workers who are often
victims and survivors of abuse
and exploitation.
Stop harassing the migrant
workers and their families!
Kanlungan Centre
Foundation Inc.
77
K-10 Street, East Kamias, Quezon City
Philippines
Email:
kanlungan2008@gmail.com
Call for Justice for All Domestic Workers!
16.06.2015
Call for Justice for All Domestic Workers!
We celebrate International Domestic Workers day, recognising the
significant contribution of domestic workers to the global economy and to
everyone's lives.
We must unite on this workers day in international solidarity to
demand human and labour rights and justice for all women and men who perform
domestic work.
Domestic workers are
situated in structural inequality within the global neoliberal political
economy; the local economy and households
Around the world neoliberal agendas have led to a growth in
inequality. The human cost of structural adjustment programmes imposed in
developing countries has been harsh - from budget cuts to privatisation
policies aimed at reducing the role of the state and the deregulation of the
market to open the local economy to global competition and foreign investment.
There has been a shift from an informal sector to an informal economy with more
precarious exploitative and unprotected forms of jobs and a decline in wages. It
is in context in which women and men contemplate migrating to work overseas.
We call for an end to migrants being forced into low-wage domestic
work by challenging the unjust conditions and policies that deny them a
meaningful ‘choice’.
Everyone is thinking of
going overseas because of poverty [inequality - no redistribution], to find a
good job that will be enough for the family, especially
with the increasing cost of living with privatization.
I went overseas to work because of
a problem with my husband.
The problem here in our
country is a lack of jobs and the salary is much higher in other countries.
For someone like me who
could not finish studying I cannot work in an office only as a domestic worker
or factory worker. I really want to be a teacher.
Kanlungan has found 60 to 70% of domestic workers are either college
graduates or tertiary educated. Despite their education these women were forced
into underemployment as domestic workers.
If I could choose a job, I
would want a better job like simple office work as a secretary or a job that
will make you known and rise up in a position more. I would like to serve in
the government in order to help the poor.
Overseas job opportunities are highly gendered with women migrant
workers only being offered employment in low-wage ‘feminised work’ such as
domestic work, caregiving, entertainment sectors and nursing.
All domestic workers in a Kanlungan survey said NO - they would not
want their daughter to be employed in domestic work.
Some workers are denied the opportunity to migrate due to lack of
resources.
The Philippine government's aggressive labour export policy,
especially of domestic workers leads to the promotion of cheap labour to
compete with other sending countries. There are contradictory policies between
regulating labour migration whilst at the same time targeting a 1 million
deployment per year. The government promotes domestic work by creating and
marketing the concept of ‘super maids’ and ‘world-class domestic workers’.
We recognise reduced levels of state public accountability for
family under neoliberal regimes in some countries and gender inequalities in
families has led to a greater demand for the labour of domestic workers without
subsequent recognition of its value.
Decent work and dignity for
all domestic workers worldwide
We are one with migrant domestic workers who suffer injustices in
the workplace:
No freedom, you are always
incarcerated- you must be free to do what you want.
No proper wages, rape, 24/7 work,
physical abuse, not enough food, not enough rest especially in the evening and
not having a weekly day off; being viewed and treated as lowly, stupid or a
slave; cannot protect themselves from abuse or exploitation without further
threat of violence or loss of job and being sent home; sometimes being framed
up, accused of stealing; not having their own sleeping quarters or room; and
the high cost of placement fee.
We recognise some domestic workers have a positive migrant
experience based on suwerte suwerte lang -
luck, through the random encounter with a ‘kind’ employer, rather than
recognition of their entitlement to labour rights in the workplace.
We condemn the expectation that domestic workers ‘perform’ a
subordinated role, which makes them particularly susceptible to violent abuse.
Many are subject to control and surveillance practices by their employer and
recruitment agents; some end up in forced labour situations. Stigmatizing
societal and state stereotypes, derogative labels and the commoditised
marketing by some recruitment agencies, shapes the inhumane treatment of
migrant domestic workers.
We call for an end to so-called ‘protection’ for women domestic
workers being conflated with confinement to oppress in some workplaces,
training centres and shelters. This gendered system of control has led to
social exclusion and created unsafe living conditions for women migrant workers
where physical and sexual violence occurs.
There must be rights-based gender sensitive social protection for
domestic workers.
We recognise the wider structures of
inequality and lack of resources that impact upon the domestic workers’ ability
to claim rights and call for their transformation.
In keeping with the neoliberal agendas of
privatization, states have created the conditions for private actors including
employers to control low-wage migrant domestic workers. Exclusion of domestic
work from labour laws; the impunity of recruitment agents and employers; lack
of enabling conditions for access to justice; gender inequality and resistance
by states to commit and comply with international instruments to protect the
rights of migrants workers: All are significant in creating structural
conditions for exploitation and abuse of migrant domestic workers.
Participation of domestic
workers is the foundation upon which justice for domestic workers must be built
Now is the time to unite and show solidarity
with domestic workers - to move beyond treating domestic workers as the
‘subject’ and paying lip service to their empowerment.
Let us end the culture of consultation: domestic
workers must be central in all stages of policy-making and importantly the
framing of their struggle. There must be direct capacity building rather than a
hierarchical chain with no real evidence of transfer to the migrant workers
themselves.
We must be vigilant against the growth in
neoliberal ‘technical advocacy’ with its professionalization of advocacy where
trained ‘experts’ speak for domestic workers. This reinforces their
subordination and adds another layer to the ‘migration industry’.
Now is the time is build the direct
collective bargaining power of domestic workers in trade unions and
associations.
We must build and strengthen the commitment
to a grassroots movement to: forge solidarity; ensure activist thinking from
the position of the disadvantaged; to ensure framing and mobilisation is based
upon what domestic workers want; to improve their situation and emancipate
them.
As with any movement, those affected must
speak for themselves.
We call for solidarity with migrant domestic workers by:
§ Recognising domestic work as work
§ Building and supporting solidarity between domestic workers
§ Ensuring migrant workers are well represented in conferences on
their situation.
§ Strengthening labour and women’s movements support for the domestic
workers’ struggle.
§ Ending human and labour rights violations of migrant domestic
workers and demanding rights-based gender sensitive social protection
§ Challenging the dominance of neoliberal policies and inequalities in
the global political economy and migrant management approaches that limit
social and gender justice.
§ Calling for the ratification and compliance with the ILO Domestic
Workers Convention, 2011 (C189); the UN International Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
and the Convention on the Elimination of All Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW).
Justice for all domestic workers!Domestic Workers Unite!
77
K-10 Street, East Kamias, Quezon City
Philippines
Website:
www.kanlungan.org
Email:
kanlungan2008@gmail.com
Call for Rights-based Protection and Justice for All Migrants!
28.05.2015
Call for Rights-based
Protection and Justice for All Migrants!
We welcome the humanitarian response of governments who have begun
search and rescue of the Rohingya and Bangladeshi people at sea and offered
them temporary refuge.
Migrants trapped at sea on boats is not a new phenomenon in the
region, neither is the daily reality of the struggles and plight of refugees
and many migrants forced to live in fear and face discrimination, exploitation,
violence and death. Visibility of this long-term problem of brutality rite
large demands both protection and justice.
The latest exposure of mass graves and trafficking camps on the
militarised Thai-Malaysian border has again rendered visible the tragic
consequences of the regional conditions of: inequality and injustice; the
decades-long persecution of Rohingya people and inadequate refugee protection;
systemic corruption; the structural labour demands for trafficked and smuggled
people in our economies (and lifestyles) and beyond; restrictive immigration
policies; and lack of commitment in practice to rights-based labour migration
and protection for low-income workers.
These conditions have allowed the criminal large-scale trafficking
industry to flourish for years, despite being an open secret in the region.
Now is the time for ASEAN member
states to demonstrate the collective political will to convert responsibility
into practice and demonstrate a commitment to the protection and access to
justice of all migrants.
Now is the time for ASEAN to
show solidarity, respect for human rights for all and move beyond rhetoric to
abide with the principle of being people-centred.
We call for action by ASEAN member states, the ASEAN people, and the
International community to:
§
Intensify the search and rescue operations of the women, men and
children whose precious lives remain at risk at sea in overcrowded boats.
§ Monitor, guarantee rights and provide transparency of the human
rights situation of all those who have made it ashore.
Establish an independent oversight committee,
inclusive of civil society.
§ Provide humane treatment and safe open accommodation for all who
have been rescued at sea or from the brutal hands of traffickers.
§ Ensure that family members remain in contact and comply with the
obligation to protect children as per the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child (1989).
§ Provide rights-based protection for all with access to free legal
services and health care - with initial assessments of need by a qualified
professional.
§ Recognise the devastation of sexual violence on women lives: provide
psychosocial support and prosecute perpetrators.
§ Do not send the Rohingya people back to face persecution and death -
Uphold the principle of non-refoulement and respect their agency to escape.
§ Respect the mobility rights, right to life and development of
Bangladeshi people. No deportation without due process.
§ Investigate and ensure justice for all those who died and their
families left behind.
§
Move beyond humanitarian assistance to prevention and justice: No
more repetitions. Develop comprehensive regional binding solutions that address
the long-term conditions responsible for the deaths and devastation of an
untold number of lives over the decades.
We urge the entire ASEAN community to unite and be in solidarity
with these people - Remain vigilant and steadfast in ending these injustices
against migrants.
Rights-based Protection and Justice for All !!!
Kanlungan Centre Foundation, Inc.
77
K-10 Street, East Kamias, Quezon City
Philippines
Website:
www.kanlungan.org
Email:
kanlungan2008@gmail.com
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