Zero remittance for the biggest violators of the rights of migrants.

This was the call of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body in Hong Kong (AMCB-IMA-HK) as they kicked-off their participation to the internationally-coordinated 10-day Countdown against the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) with protests at various consulates. The countdown is led by the International Migrants Alliance.

Composed of migrants of different nationalities, the AMCB trooped to the consulates of Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and the United States as well as to the office of the European Council and the HK's Central Government Office.

"The hypocrisy of the GFMD is concretized in the policies on migrants of these governments. There is no way that the GFMD can really serve the interest of migrants if it does nothing to address the anti-migrant policies we are already suffering from," said Dolores Balladares, spokesperson of the group.

On each of the consulate, AMCB members presented a list of demands to government representatives. These demands included, among others, the improvement of on-site services for their nationals, effective resolution to the serious problem of overcharging of recruitment agencies especially to Indonesians and Filipinos, scrapping the Documentary Stamp Tax and other state exaction of the Philippine government, lifting the HK ban on Nepalese migrants and protection of undocumented migrants in Europe.

In particular for the HK government, the AMCB reiterated their call for a substantial wage increase for foreign domestic workers. Balladares said that migrants in HK were highly-disappointed by the absence of plans for the improvement of their plight in the recent policy address of Chief Executive Donald Tsang. She expressed migrants' fear that with a financial crisis in the offing, the wage of migrants will again be subjected to cuts.

"These are the issues that the GFMD does not address. Worse, in the current framework of the GFMD coupled with the intensifying economic crisis, what are in store for us are even graver attacks to our rights," Balladares added.

Balladares relayed that the consulate-hopping protest was the first of a series of actions that the AMCB will do to drumbeat their call for Zero Remittance Day on October 29, the first day of the official GFMD meeting.

"The GFMD and the major players pushing for this process, primarily the US and countries that are major exporters of labor, are only concerned with the cheap labor that migrants provide and the profit that can be squeezed from us. The strongest of our condemnation can be shown by withholding the money that the GFMD covets," she remarked.

On October 26, the AMCB shall hold the Asian Migrants' Assembly against the GFMD that is expected to draw in about 1,000 Asian migrants and will end with a protest march to the HK CGO. The group also plans to hold an action at the Consulate of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to denounce the abuses against migrants there and at the Consulate of Malaysia to protest the crackdown against undocumented migrants and the prosecution of known advocate for migrants, Dr. Irene Fernandez.

"Asian migrants in Hong Kong are geared towards challenging the GFMD. In the next 10 days, we shall be part of the global movement that will confront the GFMD and its core agenda of commodifying migrants," Balladares concluded.