Statement on the 15th ASEAN Summit 2009 Genuine development and progress for the people of ASEAN Stop forced migration and commodification of migrant workers!

Grassroots organizations of migrants, advocates and concerned groups under the network Migrants' Caucus on ASEAN call on to leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members to work for the genuine development of countries in the region that will put an end to forced migration and the commodification of migrant workers.

Labour migration has become, in the past decades, integral to the economic and development programs of countries in southeast Asia. The region is both a host to millions of migrants and also a source of millions more workers deployed in the more developed regions of the world.

Reliance in migrant labour and migration both as a source of cheap workers and curbing severe unemployment problem are the resulting impacts of the aggressive implementation of neoliberal globalization in countries in the region.

It is already beyond doubt for the peoples of southeast Asia that the neoliberal globalization agenda destroys life and livelihood. Trade liberalization, deregulation of industries and the privatization of services have pushed millions of peasants, workers, women, indigenous people and other marginalized classes and sectors to extreme poverty, displacement and deprivation.

Sadly, the ASEAN has not yet learned from the lessons of the past years that have seen countries reeling from crisis after crisis. Countries in the region have not yet recovered from the devastations of the 1997 Asian financial crisis and now, an even worse economic crunch is in the offing. Already, in the region and elsewhere, workers – particularly migrant workers – have been laid off from work or their economic capacity reduced in the face of skyrocketing costs of goods and services.

In place of the multilateral agreements previously advanced through the World Trade Organization, neoliberal globalization is now being spread through bilateralism. ASEAN has been dubbed by civil society organizations as an “FTA darling” for the rapid increase of bilateral labor and free trade agreements ASEAN members have forged with others as well as those ASEAN as a group has entered into.

To make matters worse, there are clear indications that point to the increasing interest and intervention of the United States – the major imperialist and champion of neoliberal globalization – to the ASEAN. As the trend goes, an FTA between the US and the ASEAN may soon emerge.

Bilateral agreements on labour, unfortunately, focus more on the systematization of labour migration, squeezing the maximum profit from migration for the benefit of the monopolists and the ruling elite, and ensuring that monopoly-capitalists have the steady supply of the cheapest labour.

ASEAN is now in the process of establishing an instrument on migrant workers. In this process, transparency must be practiced and the participation of the grassroots people must be ensured. While working towards such an instrument may be a positive step towards the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers, refugees and asylum seeker, such can only be of true service to the migrant workers if the voices of the grassroots will be considered and their concrete issues are addressed.

The MCA aims to promote solidarity and cooperation of migrants and advocates to engage relevant ASEAN processes and to confront FTAs and its impacts both in the regional and in the national level. Only through the solidarity of migrants can forced migration and the commodification of migrants be stopped.

21 October 2009

Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
Association for the Rights of Children in South East Asia (ARCSEA)
Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN)
Tenaganita (Women's Force, Malaysia)
Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia (ATKI-Jakarta, Indonesia)
Institute for National and Democratic Studies (INDIES, Indonesia)
Institute for Reproductive and Family Health (RaFH, Vietnam)
Mekong Minority Foundation (MMF, Thailand)
Migrante International (Philippines)
Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD, Philippines)
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Philippines)
Ibon Foundation (Philippines)
Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER, Philippines)

The Migrant's Caucus on ASEAN was formed after the Roundtable on ASEAN, Labour Migration and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). It gathers various organizations of migrants and advocates to confront issues of migrants in southeast Asia, engage in the ASEAN processes for the protection of the rights of migrants, and address issues emerging from bilateral labour agreements that involve member countries of the ASEAN or the ASEAN as a regional formation.

You can email the MCA at mc.asean09@gmail.com

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