PH pushing migrant rights in UN nego process

FILE: The Philippine government on Monday reaffirmed commitment to take a lead role in the negotiations on a United Nations agreement that seeks to provide better treatment and protection for migrant workers. (Photo by Marlon E/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

MANILA — The Philippine government on Monday reaffirmed commitment to take a lead role in the negotiations on a United Nations agreement that seeks to provide better treatment and protection for migrant workers.

Manila is participating in the preparatory negotiations for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) in Mexico starting Dec. 4 and will run until Dec. 6.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the government remains guided by President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive “to continue working to promote and protect the interests and welfare” of Filipinos abroad.

“The GCM process is important to the Philippines and we are ready to assume a leadership role to ensure a successful outcome,” he said.

“Our experience in the promotion of the welfare and the protection of the rights of Filipino migrants led us to these fundamental advocacies. This firmed up our commitment to stirringly advocate for rights of all migrant workers. The GCM is the primary UN process for advancing these advocacies,” he added.

A government inter-agency team headed by DFA Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola is now in Puerto Vallarta to push the Philippine migrant’s rights agenda in the GCM negotiations, Cayetano said.

Ambassador Teodoro Locsin, Jr., Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations in New York, said that the Philippines is one of the countries that led the campaign for the UN to adopt the GCM.

“The GCM shows that migration has become a major issue in the international agenda and that is why we have fought to mainstream migration into the United Nations development agenda and include it in the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said.

In addition, Ambassador Evan Garcia, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations in Geneva, stressed the importance of international migration issues to the country’s national interest.

“The country has to maintain its leadership on international migration governance for the good of our many kababayans now overseas or planning to go abroad,” Garcia said.

The Philippines is also convening a meeting on the Migrants in Countries in Crisis Initiative (MICIC), which produced the Guidelines to Protect Migrants in Countries Experiencing Crisis or Natural Disasters.

The Guidelines constitute a voluntary toolkit that may be used by States and other stakeholders to respond to protection needs of migrants in countries experiencing crisis or natural disasters.

As per the DFA, the meeting in Mexico is expected to produce inputs to the negotiations on the GCM, which will be held at the UN Headquarters New York from February to July next year.

The GCM is expected to be adopted at an international conference hosted by Morocco in December 2018.

To benefit Filipinos

In an earlier interview, Raul Dado, executive director for the DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs said the Philippines hopes that the GCM will be “signed by many countries, including sending and receiving countries.”

Sending countries include India and Indonesia while the receiving state are usually Western countries like the US, Canada or Germany, Dado said.

He said the agreement aims to cover all advocacies when it comes to sending workers abroad.

“Essentially, yes, papasok (ang) intervention ng mga bansa (kung may problema). The whole cycle of migration from pre-departure, departure, to working, to return, na naging smooth siya na hangga’t maari walang problema.”

Part of the GCM’s vision are ease of movement, legal protection abroad and re-integration. Dado said its adoption would further champion the welfare of Filipinos abroad.

Giving example, he said: “United States will be cognizant of our nurses, we will be able to send our nurses to the US without any kind of… ease of movement of professionals will be facilitated by this agreement.”

Under the Annex II of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, 193 UN Member States in 2016 agreed to launch a process of intergovernmental negotiations leading to the adoption of the GCM.

In a statement dated Dec. 3, 2017, State Secretary Rex Tillerson said the US has decided to end participation in its development, citing a number of NY Declaration’s policy goals which run counter with US law and policy.