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Fifteen persons from YMCAs with direct engagement in work with migrant workers and related issues, representing YMCAs of 8 countries met on 9-13 August 2001, at the Taipei YMCA in Taiwan. This was a meeting of YMCAs that had, as a response of the Consultation on Migrant Workers' Issues organised by the Asia and Pacific Alliance in Rokko YMCA, Osaka, Japan, in 1997, initiated and are running migrant workers' centres, and YMCAs in receiving countries. The Workshop deliberated on networking for resource sharing and action on the empowerment of migrant workers, reintegration and the Global Campaign for Ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. Workgroup sessions were intensive and participants shared with passion. Each participant committed himself/herself to implementing the action plans drawn up to address some of the challenges emerging from the phenomenon of people uprooting themselves from their home country and moving to a strange foreign land with different cultures and languages, because they can no longer survive at home. They leave home and loved ones, to seek economic sustenance for the loved ones left behind, at great risk and hardships to themselves - risk of violation of their rights, exploitation, abuse (physical and sexual), discrimination, etc. The uprooting is not merely physical, but also psycho-social and emotional. Migration for labour in a foreign land may not only have been the consequence of economic, but also social and even political situations associated with globalisation. Networking was seen as a key component in work to uphold the rights and dignity of migrant workers, to orient, empower them and to sustain the YMCAs' coordinated actions so that together we can make a difference through concrete and long-term organising and partnership initiatives. As a start to our networking initiatives, there was sharing of the diverse perspectives and experiences from both the sending and receiving countries. The Workgroups looked for, and decided on commonalities that could serve as a basis for resource sharing, strategies and action plans, based on common positions, saying and doing the same things in different places and in as may different ways. Reintegration was another point of discussion. The Group looked at the status of reintegration programmes in the region, the most of which lean heavily towards "migrant savings for alternative investments" and linked with "savings groups" termed "Reintegration Savings Groups". Ms. Elsoise Borreo of the YMCA of Philippines shared on the Unlad Kabayan, a key partner and pioneering group established in the Philippines in 1995 "to help build/create opportunities so that migrant workers can be empowered and liberated through reintegration". The Unlad's core service is enterprise development. The Welfare Association of Repatriated Bangladeshi Employees (WARBE) started Bangladesh's reintegration programme in 2000. Recognising that a successful reintegration programme was a crucial component of the work, it was strongly recommended that the sending countries initiate the process through appropriate education of the intending worker and the family prior to departure. As there would need to be partner organisations in the sending as well as the receiving countries, networking and partnerships between YMCAs would play an important role in the successful implementation of a reintegration programme. With the experience of empowerment work with women and youth, and community organising at grassroots level, YMCAs are well placed to embark on reintegration programmes with the migrant workers and their families. Mr. Sriyantha G. Senaratna, Chairperson of the Task Group on Migrant Workers, and Ms. Hiromi Nagao, an active Board Member of the Osaka YMCA and the National Board of the YMCAs of Japan, in an earlier session, revisited some of the key issues raised at the 1997 Consultation. " The 14th General Assembly of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs had mandated a special effort to organise, empower and support the migrant workers in Asia. The Alliance recognised the rapid growth in the phenomenon of labour migration and the vital role migrant workers play in the economic growth of Asia, their vulnerability to discrimination and exploitation in their own country as well as in the receiving country. " Economically, labour migration brings both sending and receiving countries into a mutually beneficial relationship of interdependence. However, despite the obvious economic advantages, labour migration is spawning a host of political, social, moral and legal issues that can no longer be ignored either by the home/host countries or by the international community. Migrant workers are often treated as commodities and not afforded the respect and dignity they deserve. Labour migration in Asia has resulted in much suffering, not only on the workers themselves, but also on the family, especially on women and children. However, it was observed that today, there is still a general lack of public awareness of the issues of migrant workers. Migrant workers are often denied their basic rights and discriminated against socially and in the eyes of the law, especially the "undocumented" workers. Reintegration continue to be an issue that needs our attention and returnee workers often do not voice the trials and tribulations they had gone through whilst working overseas. " Therefore, having deliberated on and understanding these issues, the participants in 1997, had emphatically agreed to undertake action programmes to address these crucial migrant workers issues as a Mission Imperative. The following had been proposed :
- Co-ordination and Facilitation of Migrant Groups, Cooperation and Collaboration with other NGOs, NPOs involved on Migrant Issues/Networking - Advocacy on Public Policies, including UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families as adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations by Resolution 45/158 of 18, December 1990. - Implement the following practical actions : a) YMCAs at the local, national and regional levels will include migrant workers' issues in their mission thrusts, statements and action plans. (b) YMCA actions on migrant workers issues based on the following framework and guidelines, placing emphasis on the empowerment of Migrant workers who are unprotected and in great need, especially Women migrant workers and their children: Advocating and recommending to governments of sending and receiving countries to repeal laws and immigration regulations that are discriminatory and oppressive of migrant workers and that violate their fundamental rights; Undertaking a study of the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families - to better understand the many cases of violations of migrants' rights and privileges; Playing the role of co-ordinator with other NGOs, POs, Churches and Government units working towards the common mission of empowering the migrant workers and protecting their rights; Exchanging of information among YMCAs both in sending / receiving countries, via publications and other media; Implementing programmes to reintegrate the migrant workers on their return to the country of origin, placing special emphasis in enabling and empowering migrant workers to creatively use the hard earned financial resources and global knowledge towards their economic, social and political empowerment Work out partnership programmes between YMCAs in sending and receiving countries to jointly address the issues of migrant workers They noted that the 1997 Consultation was a good effort in addressing the issues of migrant workers and it had directly resulted in the establishment of migrant service, resource and counselling centres in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia. However, they hoped that this Workshop would bring YMCAs in sending and receiving countries to network for more action and to deal with the "unfinished business" of the 1997 Consultation. Each Movement shared its work with migrant workers, updating each other on the developments in their work, as the onslaught of globalisation increased the labour migration trend. There were no invited "experts" - the participants having been involved in the work since 1997 were the "grassroots experts". The groundwork for the formulation of Strategies and Action Plans was laid with discussions and sharing of information on the Rights of Migrant Workers, their Empowerment, Networking for Resource Sharing and Action, Reintegration, and the Global Campaign for the Ratification of the UN Migrants Convention The participants also visited the HOPE Workers Centre in Jung Li, Taoyuan County, Taipei and saw and heard first-hand the work done by the Centre in the empowerment programme of migrant workers and learnt about the conditions and situations of work and abuses in factories in the area. It also runs a reintegration programme and recently, in May, started a shelter for workers in difficult situations. Just four days before our visit over 40 male and female Indonesian workers from a factory turned up at the gates of HOPE Centre in the early hours of the morning, some almost at the point of exhaustion. Seven social workers in the Centre work with the Thai, Filipino and Indonesian workers.
THE
WORKSHOP COMMITTED THEMSELVES TO THE FOLLOWING : (a)
As a priority, to produce by March 2002, a Compact Disc to create
awareness of the issues related to Migrant
- a listing of resources available and the source - reintegration process/framework/plans - Statement of Consultation on Migrant Workers' Issues, 1997 - Networking Workshop, 2001 - Summary Report 2.
EMPOWERMENT: Specific
Resource Sharing and Collaborative Action
B.
Formation of APYMCA Migrant Resource and Service Network (a, b,
c above)
3. ADVOCACY : To
explore ways to engage in : "
Conduct education programmes in the YMCA on What? Why? of the UN
Convention on Migrants' Rights and the Global Campaign
4.
REINTEGRATION:
5.
OTHER SPECIFIC COLLABORATIVE ACTIONS
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