We are migrants' groups and advocates who have come together for the 4th International Migrant Forum on APEC, focusing on the theme "Asserting Migrant Workers' Rights in a Globalized Economy". We meet at a time when the neoliberal global crisis continues to threaten basic survival, negate human dignity and erode the quality of life. We've come together to draw strength and inspiration from each other in our common struggle for social and economic justice.
In 1995 we declared that: "Genuine development must be centered on the needs of people and nature, and deliver real social and economic justice. The form of indiscriminate, unregulated economic growth and trade which APEC advocates delivers the opposite: ecologically unsustainable growth."
In 1996 we declared that "globalization in the forms advocated by APEC must be rejected." We committed ourselves to "imagine and construct an alternative world based on fundamental principles respecting human rights and human dignity."
In 1997, we recognized the havoc wrought by the Asian economic crisis. And that "..in all parts of the world , human rights are under attack, irreversible damage done to the environment; social programs dismantled or privatized."
Neoliberal globalization has led to the unprecedented collapse of the economies in Asia. It continues to manifest itself in various parts of the world. Today in Asia, we face:
* Historic levels of joblessness. In 7 Asian countries (excluding China and South Asia), 26 million workers are already without jobs; four million more face unemployment by the end of 1998; one million migrant workers face deportation within this year.
* Massive impoverishment. The magnitude and intensity of poverty resulting from the crisis has increased food insecurity, including famines in certain parts of Asia. Some Asian governments claim that the crisis has reduced the standard of living by 20 years. Social inequities have also deepened. One direct effect is the intensification of rural-urban and international labor migration.
* The crisis, however, has differential impacts on social classes. Worst hit by the crisis are the peasants, workers, migrants, women, indigenous peoples and the marginalized.
* Deepened economic distortions and structural defects. Amidst the poverty, there is a crisis of overproduction especially of goods for export. Global corporate capital has made use of the crisis by gaining greater control of strategic industries through "vulture funds" (telecommunications, power, transportation, banking).
* Heightened social tensions. Conflicts between ethnic groups have erupted in racial violence. Tensions have grown between women and men, migrants and local workers, between religious groups, etc.
* Intensified discrimination against migrants. This is exemplified in more restrictive and discriminatory laws and policies against migrants, reduction or non-payment of wages/benefits specifically targeting migrant workers, confinement of migrant workers to low-paying and 3D jobs (dirty, dangerous, demeaning). Migrants have been used as scapegoats for the economic difficulties, stealing local jobs, spreading diseases, and rising criminality.
* Significant rise in violations of migrants' human rights. Now more than ever, migrant workers have become a disposable factor in production. The violations and abuses against migrants are exacerbated by the almost absolute deregulation of the labour industry.
We find recent mass arrests, raids and detention as well as forcible mass deportation of migrant workers reprehensible and condemnable.
Institutionalized commodification of human labor on a global scale. Trade in human labor in various forms (e.g. trafficking in women and children) is now one of the most profitable, albeit exploitative, industries in the world. Intense competition among monopoly capitalists feeds on the use and exploitation of cheap, controllable labor, specially migrants.
People's resistance is critical in stopping this destruction. The widespread
suffering resulting from neoliberal globalization and the crises impel
people to continue the struggle against globalization.
Our Challenges
As migrant groups, advocates and non-government organizations, we commit ourselves to:
1. Continue to make governments, labor traders, international financial and corporate bodies accountable for violations of human rights and the impacts of globalization;
2. Develop forms of resistance that complement and reinforce our strength at the international, regional and national levels;
3. Continue to fight and address violations of migrant workers' human rights;
4. Intensify education and organizing work among migrant workers to challenge globalization; help develop initiatives by migrant workers;
5. Create alternative sustainable economic models, processes and practices that will challenge/replace globalization;
6. Broaden and strengthen our alliances and solidarity across classes, sectors, nationalities;
7. Launch coordinated initiatives to build/strengthen popular movements and political momentum against globalization.
8. Develop lifestyles and relationships that promote, and are consistent
with, these alternative, sustainable models/systems.
The 1998 migrant forum has resolved to jointly do the following:
1) Campaign for the ratification and the enforcement of the UN Conventions; lobby embassies and governments.
2) Monitor the violations of migrants' rights, especially with respect to deportation of migrant workers.
3) Due to the large number of migrant workers in Malaysia, establish crisis centre(s) which are capable of dealing with crucial problems of migrant workers and can provide round-the-clock services;
4) Facilitate a regional consultation on the increasing human rights violations against women migrant workers especially in the informal sector (sex workers, entertainers, domestic workers).
5) Take the pro-active measure of organizing a regional consultation of stakeholders from South Asian Association Regional Cooperation - the next region to be hit by the economic crisis.
6) Support campaigns against wage cuts for migrant workers, e.g. in Hong Kong.
7) Organize coordinated activities, publicize actions and mark December 18 of each year as the International Solidarity Day with Migrant Workers and their Families.
8) Evaluate and monitor pre-departure and post-arrival orientation programs so that these emphasize migrants' human rights, gender and reproductive rights, health issues and the social costs/dimensions of migration.
9) Develop reintegration programs that promote sustainable economic/social
alternatives, improve the quality of life of migrant workers and their
families; link up with initiatives/networks working for such alternatives
e.g. farmers and women's movements, and community livelihood/savings projects.
Approved by the participants of the 4th International
Migrant Forum on APEC, 12 November 1998, Stanford Hotel, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.