December 18

Prominent immigrant advocates launched their most sharply worded public critique yet of the Obama administration’s immigration policy.

Advocates who spoke at a press conference Monday in Washington, D.C. angrily pointed to statistics that showed a significant acceleration in immigration enforcement over President Bush’s last year, with over 387,000 immigrants deported since Obama’s inauguration.

As a result, livelihoods were lost, local economies affected, and families split apart, the advocates said.

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FIDH expresses its deep concern regarding recent reports of detention and forced deportation of a large number of migrant workers, especially along the Thai-Burma border.

Referenced contacts:  FIDH - Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme

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This collection of essays is the first of three volumes devoted to Migration and the Arab World. The 19 authors whose essays appear in this first volume address several salient questions: What are the sizes and characteristics of the non-national workforces of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries? Which “push” and “pull” factors have driven and continue to drive this phenomenon? What effects has labor migration had on the sending and receiving countries, and on the migrants themselves?

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MADRID (IDN) – Experts and decision-makers have followed with deep concern the Global Consultation on Migrant Health in Madrid. No wonder. Reports show that a high percentage of the one billion migrants worldwide lack access to health care, while their poverty and exploitative work conditions have worsened.

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The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) is one with the exploited women of the world in the commemoration of the 100th year of the International Women's Day and in their continuing fight for comprehensive rights in society.

Many of such oppressed women are migrant workers and immigrants including those who are undocumented or in an irregular status. Their conditions have been exacerbated by the failure of neo-liberal globalization and have led to more discriminatory and restrictive policies imposed by governments of labour importing countries.

Referenced contacts:  APMM - Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants

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Migration policies must offer equal opportunities to migrate to both women and men to reduce women's vulnerability during migration and to optimize the positive development impact of migration in communities of origin, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on the occasion of International Women's Day 2010.

Full statement available here

Referenced contacts:  IOM - International Organization for Migration

Caritas Internationalis is calling on governments and the international community to protect migrants who work in people’s homes as maids, nannies and carers from exploitation. These workers are mostly women.

Domestic workers are frequently trafficked and exploited. They rarely benefit from any form of legal protection. Abuse can be difficult to detect because the workplace is in private homes.

Caritas asks that domestic workers have the same legal protection in the workplace as others workers do.

Referenced contacts:  Caritas International

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This year marks the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. In recognition of this important anniversary, the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is "Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All". More info, click here

See also:

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Statement from the Gender and Migration NGO Caucus that met on Mar. 1 during the 54th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York. The intention of the statement is to lift up the needs of migrant women in the review of the Beijing Platform for Action and to call attention to the need to strengthen the involvement of migrant women in global fora.

 

statement.doc

The ILO has issued its second preparatory report for the discussions "Decent Workf for Domestic Workers" at this year's International Labour Conference.

 

Download the report by clicking here

Referenced contacts:  ILO - International Labour Organization

A French initiative for a strike by migrants that involves abstaining from work and consumer spending on 1 March 2010 has been adhered to in Italy following recent developments, political, legislative and of violence against migrants such as that against African crop-pickers in Rosarno.

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The report relates the experiences of migrant women in Europe, the US, and the Middle East, as well as organizing strategies.  Despite the many positive experiences of female migration, significantly fewer paths are available for women to legally migrate for employment and as a result, migrant women may find themselves trapped in exploitative and coercive conditions. Once in an irregular situation, migrant women are dramatically overrepresented in gender-defined jobs with precarious working conditions, low pay and exposure to violence.

Referenced contacts:  PICUM - Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants

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With dozens of unarmed migrants attempting to enter Israel via the Sinai Desert having been killed since mid-2007 by Egyptian security forces, the top United Nations human rights official today called on the nation’s Government to call an end to the “deplorable” use of “lethal force.”

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay underscored the need for an urgent independent inquiry into the killings of some 60 people – and the wounding and disappearance of dozens more – on the Egyptian side of its Sinai border with Israel since summer 2007, when the two countries agreed t

Referenced contacts:  OHCHR - Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights

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The World Health Organization and International Organization for Migration say many of the nearly one-billion international and internal migrants around the world suffer from ill health because of stress and exploitative work conditions.  The Geneva-based agencies, along with the government of Spain, are sponsoring a Madrid conference, Wednesday through Friday, to explore ways to improve the health of migrants.  

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The shocking cases of suicides committed by migrant workers in Bahrain reported since the beginning of 2010 are the continuation of a trend that should have been addressed years ago. The BCHR and CARAM Asia condemns the failure of authorities and Bahraini civil society to improve the working and living conditions of migrant workers, which in previous cases has been shown to lead to acts of desperation such as suicide.

Referenced contacts:  CARAM Asia - Coordination of Action Research on AIDS & Mobility - Asia BCHR - Bahrain Center for Human Rights

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Date:  Thu, 25/02/2010 - Fri, 26/02/2010 City:  Bruxelles

Pour terminer la première partie de ce cycle(1), il fallait aborder le problème majeur qu'est le phénomène migratoire contemporain, si difficile à décrire et qui touche l'ensemble de la planète. Il s'agit d'une question centrale du "dialogue de l'Europe avec le monde au XXIe siècle". En effet, par sa localisation, sa géographie et son histoire, l'Europe constitue de nos jours un lieu particulier de migrations.

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International figures at the UN stressed on 18 February that both developing countries and the international community must continue efforts to protect employment in the wake of the global economic crisis. At an event to mark the second annual World Day for Social Justice (which occurs on 20 February), a panel of experts on labor and economics claimed that the effects of the crisis have not dissipated and could grow stronger without national commitments to combat unemployment.

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What viewpoints have international human rights organisations adopted since 2000 on a number of aspects relating to the treatment of migrants in the Netherlands? How have politicians and the press responded to these viewpoints? And have any steps been taken as a result of international criticism? Three circumstances serve to illustrate the importance of these questions. Government policy on immigrants has undergone continuous change since 2002, and successive governments have been exploring limits ever since that year. Referenced contacts:  FORUM - Instituut voor Multiculturele Ontwikkeling

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GENEVA – The UN human rights expert on the human rights of migrants, Jorge A. Bustamante, today raised serious concerns about the nationality verification process in Thailand and warned that its implementation in its current form may lead to forced deportation of a great number of migrants, in breach of fundamental human rights obligations.

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Over 2 million migrants have been threatened by the Royal Thai Government (RTG) with deportation after 28th Feb. 2010 if they fail to enter a nationality verification process (NV). Over 80% of these migrants are from Burma and face ethnic and political conflict as well as continuing economic deterioration in their homeland, which is controlled by a military government.

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