Unity Statement of the Asia Pacific Roundtable on ASEAN, Labor Migration and Free Trade Agreements
A CD called "Migrant Voices"
We, participants in the Asia Pacific Roundtable on the ASEAN, Labor Migration and Free Trade Agreements, unite in our commitment to advance the rights and wellbeing of migrants (including those considered as irregular), political refugees, asylum seekers and other displaced peoples; ensure that the genuine interests of migrants are upheld in the ASEAN, and; expose and resist adverse impacts to migrant workers of bilateral free trade agreements on labor migration.
We recognize that:
a. Labor migration is integral to all countries in Southeast Asia. In most cases, poverty, landlessness and unemployment due to underdevelopment are the motive forces that compel people to migrate to other countries. Free trade agreements (FTAs) promoting globalization deepen such underdevelopment which in turn, creates further labor surplus that continually replenishes the migrant labor pool. Many countries in the region are sources of millions of migrant workers while there are also ones that are destination for labor migration. This does not even include yet the tens of thousands more of refugees like the Burmese in Thailand or Filipinos who flee to Sabah due to intense military operations and landgrabbing in southern Philippines.
b. Member countries in the ASEAN are highly-dependent on labor exportation – either as a source of cheaper laborers or as a way to curb unemployment. The UN estimated in 2005 that migrants in the region numbered around 5.6 million[1][1]. With millions of more of undocumented or irregular migrants as well as refugees, the number will even be significantly higher. Remittance sent by nationals of ASEAN member countries working in another ASEAN member state was around US$10 billion that time.
to read more please click >>> Unity Statement re: Labor Migration
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