September 1, 2008
Reference:Eni Lestari, IMA Chairperson Contact Number: (852) 96081475

With all its participating governments violating our rights, the GFMD's days are numbered.

This is the statement of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) as it launches today its tactical campaign response to the upcoming Second Global Forum on Migration and Development in Manila, Philippines this October.

The Migrants' Counter to the GFMD is the name of the web-based campaign program of the IMA as a response and challenge to the GFMD. The word "counter" is used to define the two objectives of the campaign: as a counter of violations of migrants' rights, and the migrants' counter, which means resistance or opposition, to the GFMD.

"Running for two months until the GFMD's eventual activity in Manila, the Migrants' Counter is a no-holds barred drive to present the real situation of migrants and refugees under the hands of those leading the GFMD," states Eni Lestari, chairperson of the IMA.

The Migrants' Counter, a sub-site of the IMA main website, shall have a world map with "clickable" global regions where violations against migrants and refugees are present and have been documented. Under the global regions will be a list of countries and their respective cases. Upon clicking a case, the link brings the reader/surfer into the actual documentation of the case s/he chose to read.

It also features statistics about the sector, the type of cases that migrants and refugees encounter, and even a "Hall of Shame" on countries with the biggest number and most notorious of crimes against migrants and refugees. The counter's URL is http://counter.internationalmigrants.org.

Top Cases

Several cases of violations against migrants and refugees have been uploaded in the Migrants' Counter site, some of which are highlighted here per country:

Crackdown on undocumented migrants. Undocumented migrants in Italy continue to be threatened of being criminalized, dehumanized and deported by the Italian authorities. This, however, is not only happening in Italy but all over Europe where the European Union recently passed a law that will hunt down undocumented migrants, criminalized and detained for a maximum of 18 months, and expelled afterwards.

Lestari raises the concern of undocumented migrants as the GFMD has not included it in their agenda, to which she states: "Where is the sincerity in the GFMD mouthing its intent to discuss the rights of migrants when the governments of Europe, who are major players in the GFMD, are not even recognizing the rights of migrants and are the first ones to violate them?"

Remittance charges. The Philippine government recently imposed a .15% documentary stamp tax on remittances to be sent by Filipino migrant workers back home. The remittance charges have also been imposed but there is no ceiling in the percentage that can be charged on those remitting.

Government neglect. In Malaysia, the Bangladesh High Commission stopped giving travel permits to cheated Bangladeshi migrant workers without any valid reason. This led to the amassing of undocumented Bangladeshi workers in the country which makes them more vulnerable to abuse, violence and even death.

Juana Tejada, a Filipina caregiver in Canada dying of colon cancer, appealed for permanent residence to avail of the health care system in the country. She was refused twice by the Canadian Immigration and she would be deported as soon as her visa expires. After strong campaigning from the ground and lobbying work, she was finally granted the permanent residence status.

Political persecution. Victor Toro, a Chilean political activist during the Pinochet regime and now in the U.S. applying for refugee status, is being criminalized as an illegal immigrant by the U.S. authorities under the Absconder Act and is being targeted for deportation.

Prof. Jose Maria Sison, a known Filipino critic of the Philippine government and political refugee in Holland, has been constantly harassed by the Dutch government, upon the prodding of the Philippine and US governments. He was recently charged with cases of murder of which the Philippine judiciary has already cleared him.

Irene Fernandez of Tenaganita has been charged by the Malaysian Government after she released a well-substantiated report of Malaysian police maltreating undocumented migrants.

Domestic Work as Work. Various migrant organizations and institutions launched the international campaign to recognize domestic work as work to provide the necessary protection of rights and ensure services and assistance for all foreign domestic workers (FDWs). Part of this campaign is the call for a paid one-day-off for all FDWs.

Violence against women. Hazel, a Filipina cultural worker in Japan, was allegedly raped by American military men in Okinawa. The Japanese police dropped the charges due to insufficient evidence.

Psychiatric testing. The Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippine government rashly concluded that most of the Filipina domestic workers who killed their employers had a history of mental illness. It is in this frame that they will require all migrant workers to undergo psychiatric testing.

While the MC site lists 16 cases and campaigns, Lestari predicts the number to increase exponentially.

"This is just a tip of the iceberg," says Lestari, citing the many cases of abuse and violations they experience on a daily basis yet have not been documented. She mentions too that while sending governments generally abandon their labor exports abroad, receiving countries have not included migrant workers in their existing labor laws, not to mention the political crackdown some have taken against the said workers.

GFMD is Hypocritical

"It is hypocritical of the GFMD to talk about migrants' rights when even before the GFMD, these governments have been at the forefront of breaking them," Lestari said. "Our rights are simply lip-service in the agenda of the wolves running the GFMD. Their sheep's clothing should be taken out as we expose their real plan – to exploit us more for more profit."

The IMA, together with other regional and national migrant organizations and institutions, is presently preparing for the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR), an alternative forum against the GFMD. The results of the Migrants' Counter will be featured on the first day of the IAMR, slated on October 28-30.

"Whatever comes out of the Migrants' Counter is but a proof that runs counter to what the GFMD declares to be its objectives. There are many of us out there whose rights are violated and whose lives are at stake. Yet they remain to be faceless, undocumented. As we expose the real state of migrants, we aim to expose the GFMD's real neoliberal agenda as well," concluded Lestari.