Bangkok Wednesday May 07, 2008
We, migrants from Burma, who currently live and work in Malaysia and Thailand, have recently met and discussed the situation of migrant workers. We work as construction workers, domestic workers, factory workers, fisherfolk, migrant health workers and plantation workers. We, the migrant workers of Asean, have contributed to the building of Asean communities but our voices are rarely heard. Today, on behalf of the millions of migrants from Burma in this region, we ask Asean to listen and act upon our concerns.
We call for an immediate end to corporal punishment, including whipping, and all forms of torture and cruel and degrading treatment. We regularly suffer such inhumane treatment just for migrating for work within the Asean region.
We are particularly concerned that state-sponsored bounty hunters such as RELA (Volunteer People's Corps) in Malaysia and community informers in Thailand (through the Employment Alien Act 2008) divide the communities, incite hatred and violence and bring about other negative consequences. We also fear that such actions will have adverse effects on the security of the region. We call for the immediate abolition of RELA and the repeal of the relevant article in the Employment Alien Act of Thailand.
Our experiences as migrants have clearly shown us that increased border controls and travel restrictions force migrants to rely on brokers, smugglers and traffickers. In order to reach our worksites we have to travel in highly dangerous conditions, as witnessed by our brothers and sisters who suffocated in a container truck in Ranong on April 10. Therefore, we call for Asean to honour our inherent right to freedom of movement.
Migrants within Asean are living and working in sub-standard conditions. For the health, safety and well-being of all Asean communities, we call for national labour standards to be strictly enforced and for those standards to be upgraded to fully comply with international standards.
Asean should also put into place mechanisms for the prompt response to workers' concerns and complaints, especially for high-risk occupations which include construction work, fisherfolk, steel manufacturing and saw mills. In order for us to be able to make such complaints and to improve our working conditions, we call for the fundamental right of association due to all workers.
As a long neglected group of workers, we support the domestic workers' call to be recognised as workers throughout Asean and to receive equal protection and benefits as all workers. Particularly, we call for the immediate provision of one day's paid leave a week for all domestic workers.
Since far too many migrant workers in Asean continue to suffer labour abuses in their workplace, we call for the right and access to timely legal redress for migrant workers. This must also include the right to live and work in the country of destination during legal procedures, for example during labour cases for non-payment of wages, unfair dismissal and breach of agreement.
We wish to remind Asean once more that we, who migrate to work, are people, not commodities. We are not only workers but people with the right to a whole range of services. It is unacceptable for Asean's caring community to deny newborn babies birth certificates, to refuse migrant children education and to exclude migrants from national healthcare systems. Therefore, we urge Asean to immediately implement policies which will redress these discriminatory practices.
Finally, everyone is entitled to national identity, but many Asean peoples' rights to nationality has been denied; we abhor the governments which fail to acknowledge and protect their citizens.
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