ASEAN agrees to craft instrument for protection, promotion of migrant workers’ rights

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Hans Cacdac said on Monday that Labor leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed on the suggestion of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III regarding the crafting of an instrument for the protection and promotion of rights of migrant workers in the region. (Photo: OWWA Overseas Workers Welfare Administration/Facebook)

DAVAO CITY—Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Hans Cacdac said on Monday that Labor leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed on the suggestion of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III regarding the crafting of an instrument for the protection and promotion of rights of migrant workers in the region.

“It is positive, we gain some ground in the last two days of the leadership of Secretary Bello, was strong creative suggestion to move forward and the member states agreed,” he said in an interview at the last day of the ASEAN Labor Ministers’ Retreat in Davao City.

However, Cacdac declined to elaborate on what was the consensus reached by the Labor officials in the region.

“That much I can tell you, there will be a right time to announce,” he said.

With this, the OWWA chief added that they were looking to finalize the instrument in a meeting in March.

“Yes, we did gain some ground and confident that there will be another meeting next month to finalize (the instrument),” he said.

The OWWA chief was one of the attendees of the Senior Labor Official meeting held last Sunday where they discussed measures to highthen regional cooperation, uniform set of standards to protect migrant workers across ASEAN.

The two-day meeting held at Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City, has ended on Monday.

The events were attended by Labor ministers and senior labor officials from the 10 ASEAN member countries namely: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Philippines, the host nation.