After a one month delay, the ASEAN Summit will finally be held in Cebu. At the Ministerial Meetings, the government officials were busy preparing the final draft of the final document to be signed by the head of States of Asean on 13th January, 2007
One of the document which has been agreed upon by the Senior Ministerial officers meetings on 10th January, 2007 is “Cebu Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workersâ€. This Multilateral agreement must be deeply appreciated as the motivation to implement the regional migrant workers protection policies within the South East Asian nations.
The process of the policies implementation still raise many questions. The minimum involvement of the civil society and migrant workers organization from ASEAN region remain very minimum towards the final draft of the document. The concerned document will eventually become another useless declaration because there is lack of transparency of the political commitment by the Summit leaders. It is also lack of control, evaluation and monitoring mechanism by the civil society.
Migrant workers issues in ASEAN is a very crucial and complex agenda that involved political economy and security matters (human security and national security). It is because the region involved the sending and receiving nations. The problems of the migrant workers has always been an important component of the regional political dynamic within ASEAN Regions. The issue related to undocumented migrant workers, trafficking in persons, physical abuses on domestic workers and capital punishment on migrant workers in Malaysia and Singapore could easily be politically escalated into serious international relation matters.
In Indonesia Perspective, this declaration should not orientated towards the policies implemented with the main emphasis on foreign remittance revenues while ignoring the government’s constitutional obligations to provide the much needed protection to its citizen.
Republic of Indonesia government should take the pro-active action to review the Malaysia-Indonesia Bilateral MoU which according to UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrant, Prof Jorge Bustamante, is gross in violation of the Human Rights of Indonesian Migrant workers in the receiving country.
Based on the reality of the situation , We Migrant care expressed our rm stands as follows:
1. The ASEAN leaders should appreciate the spirit of “Cebu Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers†by taking positive position in evaluating and monitoring the implementation of this declaration through the constructive policies; particularly Indonesian Government and other ASEAN receiving nations (Brunei Darusallam, Malaysia and Singapore)
2. Strongly Urge, Republic Indonesia and other ASEAN nations to implement “Cebu Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers†and rectify International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families at the same time nullified the the labor labor policies that does not benefit the migrant workers
3. Strongly demand the formation of the evaluation and monitoring mechanism that involved ASEAN civil society, Human Rights Organizations and United Nations to ensure the successful implementation of “ Cebu Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workersâ€
Jakarta, 11 January 2007
Wahyu Susilo Anis Hidayah
Policy Analyst Executive Director
Contact:
Anis Hidayah: 081578722874
Wahyu Susilo: 08129307964
Alex Ong
Migrant Care
Jl. Pulo Asem I C No 15 RT 015 RW 001 Jati,
Jakarta Timur 13220 Indonesia
Tel/Fax: +62 21 4752803
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