KASAMMAKO
KATIPUNAN NG MGA SAMAHAN NG MIGRANTENG MANGGAGAWA SA KOREA
(Alliance of Filipino Migrant workers¢ Associations in Korea)
Member: Migrante International
Email : kasammakorea@yahoo.com

News release
18 July 2008

Deportation of Pinoys is undeniable in South Korea

Number matters, but intensified crackdown and deportation matters most! KASAMMAKO finds the denial of Philippine ambassador Luis T. Cruz in Seoul that there is deportation of Pinoys in South Korea amazing and unbecoming. The number of migrant workers claimed to be deported in Korea may or may not reach 30,000 out of the 74,528 temporary and irregular workers listed by the Commission of Filipinos Overseas, but the fact remains that everyday, Filipino undocumented workers are nabbed by immigration police and consequently deported, pregnant women, nursing mothers, ailing migrants seeking medical care in hospitals are of no exemptions. They are always subject to disposal after they have been used by both labor sending and receiving governments. Ambassador Luis T. Cruz himself knows that South Korean immigration authorities were given quotas of 3,000 arrests and deportations monthly. This seeming indifference on the part of Ambassador Luis T. Cruz in mediating if not at least empathizing with the affected migrant workers is an indication of condoning the Korean government¢s act of flushing out undocumented or irregular Filipino migrant workers.

Political diplomacy is always used as an easy way out and scapegoat by the Philippine embassy in Seoul to shy away from the real issues that confront migrant workers. KASAMMAKO leaders and social workers have never heard from the Philippine Embassy in Seoul making a categorical opposition to the ongoing crackdown or initiated a diplomatic dialogue that has resulted in bilateral agreement toward unconditional respect of human rights of migrant workers regardless of their visa status. True to form, Philippine embassies and consulates, in many parts of the world have become stations of legitimacy of Philippine government¢s labour export policy and serve as dollar remittances insurance hubs.

KASAMMAKO highly suggests that the Memorandum of Understanding on the Employment Permit System (EPS) should be reviewed during the bilateral talks and consultations at the Sofitel Hotel in Manila, that will begin tomorrow (July 18th), between the Republic of Korea and the Republic of the Philippines, represented by their two foreign affairs ministers, Yu Myung Hwan and Alberto Romulo respectively, that they have to work out for the protection of the workers rights, the legalization of undocumented migrant workers, and integration of all foreign workers into Korea¢s regular work force, as they strengthen their bilateral ties. They should not forget the contributions and wealth that the Filipino migrant workers have given to the two economies.

KASAMMAKO believes that protection of human rights of migrant workers and members of their families regardless of visa status must be ensured by both the labour sending and receiving countries. Most importantly, the Philippine government should overhaul its economic and political priorities to put a halt to labour export policy, which continually put thousands of Filipinos in shameful situations that of going abroad in order to find jobs, and opted to stay in their host countries after their visas expire, because the administration of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo does not take responsibility in providing jobs for majority of its more than 88 million people.

* NO TO LABOR EXPORT POLICY OF THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT!
* STOP CRACKDOWN AND PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF WORKERS!
* LEGALIZE UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANT WORKERS IN SOUTH KOREA!

Signed:

MR. POL PAR
Chairperson, KASAMMAKO
Seoul City, Korea
July 18, 2008