PRESS RELEASE
Migrants’ advocates to meet UN Permanent Mission to push for migrants rights in the upcoming UN High-Level Dialogue
September 12, 2006
(New York City) Civil Society leaders and migrants’ rights advocates from the United States, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe gather in New York City today to meet with permanent mission representatives to the United Nations (UN) to present civil society perspectives on migration and development. The embassy visits are being organized by Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) and Migrants Rights International (MRI) ahead of the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development on September 14-15, 2006.
“As part of the civil society, we exercise our right to speak out and deliver our position on critical issues related to migration and development,” says Sajida Ally, Programme Consultant of MRI. “It is imperative for us to present our perspectives to the permanent mission and government representatives. These are the people who will influence the course of the debate at the High-Level Dialogue. It is essential that they base discussions on the real situation of migrants’ human rights.”
According to MFA Regional Coordinator William Gois, the Asian delegates managed to secure appointments with the permanent missions of the Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and South Korea. The Asian delegates called the Asian Alliance for Migration, Development and Human Rights will be presenting their recommendations to their government counterparts including the call to ratify and implement the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families as well as the relevant labor standards and other migration-related conventions of the International Labour Organization.
“Labor migration is quite dynamic in the Asian region which now hosts 53 million migrants, and it fast becoming an intra-regional phenomenon with around 2.5 million people a year moving within the region, says Mr. Gois. “The policy framework that will be created at the High-Level Dialogue as indicated by the Secretary General’s report leans more towards harnessing remittances as an economic benefit of migration. We are also concerned with the ‘co-development’ strategy wherein civil society has little or no participation at all. The main stakeholder in the migration process is the migrants themselves. Therefore, the policy on migration must be based primarily on the needs of people migrating,” adds Mr Gois.
MRI and MFA recommends for the establishment of a Permanent Forum on Migration that is inclusive and participatory. The group says that the forum should be a place to stimulate new ideas, approaches and perspectives in understanding migration and to enforce government commitments towards these.
“The forum should likewise include issues related to the contemporary nature of migration. A lot of things are happening and it is not just remittances. We must recognize that migration is a complex issue that should be based on human rights framework,” says Ms. Ally.
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The Civil Society Parallel Events on Migration, Development and Human Rights are being held at the Queens College Workers Education Extension Center, 25 W 43 rd Street between 5 th and 6 th Avenues in New York City until September 15, 2006.
For interviews and more information, please contact:
Joey Dimaandal
Tel: +639175267171, +639278775810
Email: j-mod@rocketmail.com
Address: West Side YMCA, 5 West 63 rd Street between Broadway and Central Park West, New York City.
Arnoldo Garcia (For Spanish language media organizations)
Tel +1 510 928 0685
Email: agarcia@nnirr.org
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