Resolution on Treatment and Protection of Migrant Workers
16th ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASIA – PACIFIC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM
21 – 24 January 2008, Auckland, New Zealand
Resolution on Treatment and Protection of Migrant Workers
APPF16/RES/19
(Sponsored by Indonesia, Mexico, and the Philippines)
THE SIXTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASIA PACIFIC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM
Recalling that the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families and the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions 97, 143 and 151 established a broad legal framework for migrant protection;
Realizing that human trafficking is a serious crime which generates illegal annual profits of approximately $10 billion dollars;
Realizing the impact of globalization and its effects on the increase of international migration, and the precariousness of migrant worker conditions such as victim of traffickers, low paying and low status jobs, human rights abuses and ignored labour;
Realizing that labor migration in Asia and the Pacific is customarily directed through employment agencies, which compel migrants to pay high recruitment fees;
Acknowledging the contribution of migrant workers to the economy of both receiving and sending states and their share to the development and prosperity of the region;
Recognizing that growing economic inequality between and within countries is a major factor to explain the increase in the employment related migration which is much larger than all the other migratory movements taken together;
Noting the increase in female migration, especially in countries of Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Eastern Europe;
Expressing concern about the high figure of human beings who die trying to reach their destination by land or sea, sometimes at the hands of people smugglers;
Recognizing the responsibility of our governments to promote a culture of tolerance, understanding and equality through public education;
Further realizing that migrant workers are vulnerable to abusive working and living conditions, and even racial discrimination, due to the weaknesses in various phases of the migration system;
Deeply concerned with the abuse, violence, discrimination as well as violation of the rights of migrant workers;
RESOLVES TO:
- Call upon APPF member parliaments and their governments to establish and to strengthen their efforts in enforcing their respective national laws and regulations on the protection of migrant workers particularly to provide them with equal treatment, as well as resources and remedies to the victims of discrimination, abuse and violence, while adhering to international conventions in that effort;
- Recommend APPF member Parliaments and their governments which have not yet done so, to consider signing and ratifying the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and the Members of their Families, and the ILO conventions on migration and ensure their full implementation;
- Call on the receiving States to treat migrant workers with generosity and thoughtfulness so that the children of migrant workers have equal access to education.
- Stress the need for an international governing body that will specifically oversee and monitor migration around the world;
- Call upon all governments to enter into bilateral and multilateral agreements that will ensure the rights and protection of migrant workers and provide appropriate mechanisms that said agreements are enforced and participate in international dialogue on migration;
- Urge governments to take extensive steps to lower the costs of the transfer of remittances and neutralize any measure that restricts these invaluable resources for millions of people, so that migrant workers can increase their savings;
- Guarantee that the laws to protect migrants include an transparent clear and coherent mechanism to ensure implementation in particular by allocating adequate resources for this purpose;
- Take all possible measures to prevent the imposition of inhumane migration control, which is against the human rights of migrants.
