AEC bad for Thai farmers, workers: NGOs (Nation, 29/5/2012)

 

AEC bad for Thai farmers, workers: NGOs

Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation May 29, 2012 1:00 am

Poor farmers and unskilled labourers would feel a negative impact and no benefits from the 2015 launch of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), a forum of non-governmental organisations said yesterday.

Thailand was set to open its borders to almost all farming products from Asean members, meaning its major products such as rice would no longer be competitive, said Witoon Lianchamroon, director of BioThai.

Thailand's standing as a regional powerhouse in rice production was misunderstood, he said. Under the AEC, Thai farmers would get hurt in the long run as their production costs were increasing while yield was reducing, he said.

Thailand has the region's highest production cost but near lowest productivity, he said. Vietnam has the region's highest yield, of 862.4 kilograms per rai, against Thailand's 448kg per rai, he said. Myanmar's 427.2kg per rai is the region's lowest.

Asean members Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have maintained high import tariffs for rice of 25, 20 and 40 per cent respectively ahead of 2015, he said.

Thailand's cassava production also was badly placed, with a yield of 2 tonnes per rai against Cambodia's 5 tonnes, said Witoon, adding that Thai farmers were facing difficulty in competing with the lower-cost produce from other Asean countries.

Thailand's unskilled labourers would also face difficulty as cross-regional movement of their counterparts from other Asean members increased over the next three years, said Pranom Somwong of Asean Watch.

Asean members have agreed to allow skilled workers - doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, architects, accountants and surveyors - free movement by 2015.

The group, however, has no agreement for movement of the huge number of unskilled workers in the region, she said.

Though Asean has issued a declaration to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers, it only covered registered migrant workers, while ignoring the millions of undocumented workers, she said.

Asean members have been reluctant to receive unskilled migrant labourers despite demand for them. Thailand has only 851,830 registered migrant workers - from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar - with more than 1.5 million of them working here undocumented and thus lacking proper protection for their rights and lives, she said.

Pranom urged Asean to pay more attention to undocumented and unskilled labourers as the group steered toward 2015 integration in the AEC. - Nation, 29/5/2012, AEC bad for Thai farmers, workers: NGOs

Groups working for Foreign Domestic Workers Recommendations to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (21/10/2011)

Foreign Domestic Workers Recommendations to the
ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (21/10/2011)

We, the migrant domestic workers groups, NGOs and regional networks, present our recommendations to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) on the rights of all women foreign domestic workers, documented and undocumented.

Firstly, we would like to express our appreciation for the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers. However, we are concerned that large numbers of migrants are currently excluded from its protection and therefore strongly urge the inclusion of undocumented migrants and families of all migrants.

We call on AICHR to inform all ASEAN member states of the critical importance of the ILO Convention and Recommendations concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (No 189) particularly Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma and Singapore, and to persuade all ASEAN member states to ratify the Convention within the coming year.

We express our disappointment over the slow pace by which ASEAN member states are ratifying the UN International Convention for the Protection of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990). We therefore urge AICHR to persuade ASEAN Member States, especially destination countries to also immediately ratify this International Convention.

Following our consultations, we also make the following recommendations. We strongly urge AICHR:

1. To promote the reform of national laws of all ASEAN member states and all regional policies and regulations to recognise domestic work as work.

2. To support the development of mechanisms which provide access to justice for migrants across and beyond borders. These would include among other specialised services, interpretation services, legal assistance, and temporary shelters and the right of migrants to stay and work during legal process.

3. To work with governments to develop social security systems which include migrants.

4. To uphold migrants’ rights to decent work, including the right to change employers, to just wages, to maternity leave, to healthcare and to rest days.

5. To establish national and regional mechanisms and bodies to help ensure that policies and legislation comply with international treaties/conventions.

6. Regarding the recruitment and employment processes, to work towards the abolition of labour outsourcing companies, recruitment agencies and labour suppliers. To ensure employment relationship be by direct hiring[1] that is most beneficial to migrant workers.

7. To ensure that all ASEAN member states provide equal and adequate access to health care and treatment for migrants and their families and remove all mandatory health and pregnancy testing and immediately call a halt to the practice of terminating employment contracts and deporting migrant workers based on health and/or pregnancy status.

8. To promote and protect migrants’ rights to mobility and freedom of movement.

9. To promote and protect migrants’ rights to organize and freedom of association.

10. Arrest, detention and deportation for immigration irregularities should be avoided where possible, but in cases where deportation of migrants is carried out, we call on AICHR to monitor the process to ensure the dignity and safety of migrants during these processes.

11. AICHR and ASEAN member states must ensure the right of every migrant to hold their own passport and documents (travel, identity cards, work permits, contract, etc.). To ensure migrants’ right to be heard and due process. There should not be any termination or cancelation of visas and other legal documents without the presence of the holder (migrant).

12. To ensure that migrants who have been trafficked are entitled to protection and empowerment services. There should be no deportation or detention of victims of trafficking, witnesses and other migrants affected by raids. AICHR and ASEAN member states should ensure the victim’s right to stay and work and ensure their access to adequate remedies and compensation.

13. Lastly, we call on AICHR to urge ASEAN member states to promote women’s livelihood options both at home and abroad, and to ensure that women have access to education and resources and choices in employment.

On behalf of:

United Foreign Domestic Workers Rights
ACHIEVE (Action for Health Initiative) (Philippines)
CARAM Cambodia
Tenaganita(Malaysia)
Solidaritas Perempuan (Indonesia)
Workers Hub for Change
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development
MAP Foundation, Thailand
Mekong Migration Network
CARAM Asia
INDIES (Indonesia)
ATKI (Indonesia)
Asian Migrants Coordinating Body
Human Rights Working Group (Indonesia)





For further information, please contact:
Ms Khairiah Makata
CARAM Asia
Email: khairiah@caramasia.org
Phone: +603 2282 7708; +603 2282 1669

Ms Huong Tran
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development
Email: huong@apwld.org




[1] ‘Direct hiring’ is defined as the direct employment relationship between employers (owner/operator/end-user /principal employers) AND workers to the exclusion of third parties including labour suppliers.

ALIRAN: Protecting the rights of migrant workers and their families: Malaysia’s obligation

Protecting the rights of migrant workers and their families: Malaysia’s obligation

Sunday, 06 December 2009 18:32

The Asean Committee for Migrant Workers (ACMW) Drafting Committee meets in Kuala Lumpur on 7 and 8 December 2009, hosted by the Ministry of Human Resources. The ACMW Drafting Committee comprising Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines, is in the process of drafting a Framework Instrument on the protection and promotion of migrant workers rights for Asean, in line with the principle affirmed by the ten Asean states, under the Bangkok Declaration on Irregular Migration 1999 and the Asean Declaration on the protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

Under the Bangkok Declaration, “Regular migration and irregular migration should not be considered in isolation from each other”, and “migration, particularly irregular migration, should be addressed in a comprehensive and balanced manner, considering its causes, manifestations and effects, both positive and negative, in the countries of origin, transit and destination.”

Further, signatory countries committed themselves under The Bangkok Declaration to formulate “comprehensive, coherent and effective policies on irregular migration … within the context of a broader regional framework based on a spirit of partnership and common understanding.”

In accordance with its commitment under the said declaration the Malaysian Government should extend protection of migrant workers’ rights to all migrant workers (documented and undocumented) regardless of their legal status in the future Framework Instrument for Protection and Promotion of Migrant Workers’ Rights.

The Government should also give protective coverage to the rights of migrant workers' families under the same future Framework Instrument.

The exclusion of both the above provisions from the Framework Instrument goes against Malaysia’s commitments under the UN Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that all member nations of Asean have ratified and acceded to.

The CRC General Comment 6, issued by the Committee of the Rights of Child, states that all children present on the territory of a Government shall be extended the full protections under the CRC, regardless of status or origins of the child. The provisions of the Asean Instrument being developed must fully cover migrant children along with the other members of their family.

We support the vision of the Asean Declaration because the protection of women migrant workers and the children of migrant workers is an important central element of a comprehensive and efficacious regional Instrument.

Thus we urge the government to join the three other member states in the ACWM Drafting Committee i.e. Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines in supporting the inclusion of these clauses. Two of these, Indonesia and the Philippines, contribute a large portion of migrant labour to Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Brunei. The governments of origin countries like Indonesia and the Philippines would want to protect the rights of their nationals working abroad as is their duty to their own citizens and is exemplary government conduct.

Aliran seeks to remind the Malaysian Government that it is not in the national interest and that of the ‘rakyat’ at home or abroad to complicate or stall the process of establishing accepted and agreed international practices that meet internationally recognised and approved ILO standards.

We also remind the Government that all Asean partners supported the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted unanimously by the ILO in June 1998. The ILO Declaration stipulates that the human rights of all migrant workers, regardless of their status, should be promoted and protected in line with the eight core ILO Conventions. Accordingly, we submit that the Asean Instrument being drafted must be in harmony with these Conventions.

We urge the Ministry of Human Resources and the Drafting Team to adopt the definition of “migrant worker” contained in Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. This Convention defines a migrant worker as “a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national.” This definition is comprehensive, clear and concise and merits adoption.

The coverage of migrant workers by the Asean Instrument should not be determined by the type of work performed by the migrant worker or the nature of the contract through which she or he is employed. A significant number of migrant workers in the region are temporary workers, domestic workers, informal sector workers and self-employed workers. It is important to ensure that these categories of workers, who are often overlooked, are included in the coverage of a regional Instrument.

We further note the Asean Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers makes the following reference on the importance of international frameworks -- “Recalling also the Universal Declaration on (sic) Human Rights …… as well as other appropriate international instruments which all Asean Member Countries have acceded to in order to safeguard the human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals."

Aliran strongly urges the Government to support the inclusion in the Asean Framework Instrument of the principle of “national treatment” as exemplified in Article 25 of the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

In keeping with the Prime Minister’s advocacy of 1Malaysia, we hope that Malaysia will reciprocate the goodwill, cooperation and unity of its Asean neighbours in supporting the protection and promotion of migrant workers' rights and their human rights. Doing this, will only increase international esteem and respect for our country and our nationals who are working abroad to whom the same rights will apply under the principle of reciprocity.

Moreover, Aliran recommends as a reference document for the Asean Framework Instrument on the Protection and Promotion of Migrant Workers Rights, the draft Framework Instrument proposed by the Asean Civil Society Task Force that was presented to Asean member governments at the Asean Senior Labour Officials Meeting (SLOM) earlier this year in Vientiane, Laos.

The said document had been drafted in consultation with civil societies involved in work with migrant workers and advocates of migrant workers' rights in the region. It thoroughly covers in considerable detail issues and problems faced by migrant workers in their countries of origin, in transit and in destination countries within Asean.

In conclusion, we urge the Government to cooperate in the establishment of a just Asean body that prospers economically and socially through the protection and promotion of the human rights of its Asean family in the spirit of mutual respect and goodwill amongst Asean partners and their peoples.

Aliran Executive Committee
6 December 2009