Philippines International Review
Pilot issue, Winter 1997-98

A breakthrough in the international recognition of migrant rights as human rights was achieved in December 1990 with the adoption by the United Nations (UN) of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. This Convention is the fruit of migrant struggles and the sustained campaigns of migrant rights advocates which have focused international attention on the global phenomenon of migration. In this way, the international debate on migrant rights has been decisively opened up and made more central to mainstream human rights discourse.

Comprehensive framework
The UN Convention provides the most comprehensive framework for the protection of all migrants and their families. It extends the scope of fundamental human rights to all migrants, both documented and undocumented. It recognises that migrants and members of their families are an unprotected population whose rights are often not addressed by the governments of either the receiving countries or the countries of origin.

The Convention clearly identifies the responsibility of governments and the international community through the UN to provide protection for the rights of migrants. It establishes international standards of treatment for migrants during every stage of the migration process.

To enter into effect, the Convention has to be ratified by 20 States. It must also be translated into binding legislative, judicial and administrative provisions. However, seven years after being adopted by the UN, only ten countries have ratified the Convention.

Globalisation and migrant rights
In these closing years of the 20th century, migration has emerged as a major global, economic and social phenomenon. There are 55 million migrants working in different countries across the world. Of the estimated 8 million Filipino migrants worldwide, 500,000 live and work in Europe.

With the globalisation of the world economy, migrant labour is becoming an essential component and instrument of the global market system. Contemporary labour migration provides a 'global workforce' that is mobile, cheap and frequently responsibility-free, both for employers and governments. It is in this context that the protection of migrant rights emerges as an urgent matter of international concern. The daily newspapers in Manila, Seoul and Colombo, as well as in Paris, Rome, or London regularly report abuses of migrant workers.

Filipino migrant struggles
In the face of widespread violations of their rights (Table 1), Filipino migrants are asserting their rights in a sustained and creative way. Migrants themselves are at the cutting edge of claiming and asserting their human rights. It is these struggles that give meaning and substance to the rights enshrined in the Convention.

Domestic workers
In Britain since 1987, Filipina domestic workers have been a significant section of the thousands of overseas domestic workers who although unauthorised and undocumented have brought their campaign to the House of Commons, the House of Lords and to the British government. The widespread abuses experienced by this sector have been identified as 'contemporary forms of slavery' (Table 2). Since the Labour government has come to power, the domestic workers are in direct dialogue with the government, to have their status as workers recognised in their own right and not 'tied' to their employers.

Garment workers
Filipino migrants in Athens have taken a pro-active stance in defence of their rights. Unfairly and summarily dismissed from contracted employment in a Greek garment factory, the migrant workers asked the Philippine embassy to help them secure their stay in Greece, until their case in the Greek courts could be heard. After efforts to hold a dialogue with the Philippine Ambassador failed, the Filipino migrants mounted a 21-day continuous picket in the months of July and August 1995. The picket, which drew widespread support from within the Filipino migrant community and from Greek organisations, ended when some of their key demands were met.

Seafarers
In the winter of 1996, the strike of Filipino seafarers in the port of Rotterdam hit the headlines, as the crew of 'Leader LT' endured the cold and hungry days. The 23 member crew took the owner of the ship to court in the Netherlands on the issue of back pay. The court finally ruled in favour of the crew and the ship was sold. Their demands for back pay and other issues were successfully negotiated and the money transmitted to their bank accounts in the Philippines.

Campaigns for undocumented migrants
Filipino migrants are active in on-going regularisation campaigns for undocumented migrants in Italy, Spain, France and Greece. The CFMW international office is conducting an on-going campaign for the rights of undocumented migant women workers in Europe; in The Netherlands, it is participating in a joint campaign with other migrant communities for the independent status for migrant women.

There have also been outstanding struggles by individuals: the case of Lisa Mamac who was trafficked for prostitution, and who took her traffickers to court in The Netherlands and in the Philippines; Leovy Bongay who fought for her own right, as well as that of her daughter to stay in Britain, when her husband abandoned them; the case of Pina Manuel, who spent six months in 'sanctuary' in a North London church, also fighting for her right to stay.

These are some of the struggles in which Filipino migrants have claimed their human rights in Europe. It is through these struggles that the human rights of migrants are strengthened and take on the dynamism of individual and collective commitment.

Philippine government pressured into ratification
Filipino migrant organisations have campaigned for ratification of the UN Convention. However, it was only in the aftermath of unprecedented public outrage towards the criminal negligence in the handling of the Flor Contemplacion-Delia Maga case that the Philippine government ratified the Convention. This was followed by the signing into law of the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 (Republic Act 8042), also called the Magna Carta for Overseas Workers. These have been the first gestures of the Philippine government towards its migrants and citizens abroad. But it is not only the ratification of the UN Convention which counts; the government should implement its policies to make a real difference for Filipino migrants.

Continuing campaign for ratification
Significantly, it is only the sending countries who have so far ratified the Convention. No receiving country, and this includes the member states of the European Union, have ratified the Convention (Table 3).This is inspite of the presence of an estimated 15 million migrants and refugees within the borders of the EU.

In 1998, the world will celebrate 50 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed by the UN in 1948. This occasion provides a new opportunity for governments all over the world to renew commitments to human rights and to acknowledge that migrant rights are human rights by ratifying the UN Convention for the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families.

The anniversary of the UN Declaration also provides a challenge for migrant organisations to campaign more intensively for ratification. To share this challenge, we call on all human rights organisations, migrant support organisations, and parliamentarians to campaign for the ratification of this Convention. By the year 2000, we want to see this Convention become an effective international law for the protection of migrant rights.

The history and experience of Filipino migrant communities positioned in an international and global context, are linked to the vast migrant communities of other nationalities. This is the grounding from which we develop joint strategies and campaigns for the assertion and protection of the rights of all migrants.

The hanging of Flor Contemplacion and the imprisonment of Sarah Balabagan has done much to put the issue of migrant rights at the center of the political arena in the Philippines. The rights of migrants can never be marginalised again.The human rights movement as well as the migrants movement must now ensure the convergence and integration of the migrants rights agenda within the core of human rights discourse.

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