|
Viewpoints and Advocacy
Themes and Issues |
Migrant Rights
Rights Away from Home: Workers, Women and the
World and the Convention on Migrant Workers
Presentation of John K. Bingham
Head of Advocacy, International Catholic Migration Commission
to the Congreso Internacional Sobre Los Derechos Humanos
de las Mujeres Migrantes: Acciones Para Su Protección
Mexico City April 24, 2006
Introduction
A few words about the International Catholic Migration Commission.
Created fifty-five years ago by Pope Pius XII, the mission of
ICMC is to serve the needs of uprooted people regardless of creed,
nationality or ethnic origin. ICMC works with refugees, internally
displaced persons and migrants in more than thirty countries,
giving priority to the most vulnerable and marginalized among
them. ICMC advocates a rights-based approach in the national and
international efforts to respond to their needs with durable solutions.
We do this work directly and through a worldwide network of one
hundred and seventy-two member organizations. In Mexico, we are
blessed to have Bishop Renato Ascencio León not only as
an ICMC member, but as an active leader of ICMC's Governing Committee.
Two Migrant Worker Stories
Not far from where I used to live in New York, one group has
really been treated badly: the Mexican day laborers. There are
about 1,000 workers, mostly men from Hidalgo, living in and around
a village called Farmingville, with a total population of 14,000.
Despite its name, there are almost no "farms" in "Farmingville."
Most of the Mexicans work in landscaping and construction. Six
days a week and sometimes seven, they gather along two main roads,
waiting and hoping to be picked up for work.
One Sunday morning a few years ago, two of the Mexicans
were picked up by two men who said they wanted help clearing out
the basement of an old industrial building. They drove the workers
to an abandoned group of buildings, separated from the highway
by a field and trees, and led them down some steps to where there
were piles of dirt and garbage that had to be removed.
As the Mexicans began working however, the two other men picked
up a shovel, a crowbar and a knife and began beating the workers
and slashing them ferociously. One of the Mexicans fell to the
ground. Realizing that they were going to die unless they got
out of there, he was able to get up and run-and as his attackers
turned to try to stop him, the other worker began running too.
The two WORKERS… were 19 and 28 years old. The two ATTACKERS…
were 19 and 28 years old.
Bleeding everywhere, the workers somehow made it out of
the basement, ran across the field and through the trees to the
highway. That's when they finally got lucky: even though it was
7 AM on a Sunday morning, a driver saw them, stopped, and took
them to a hospital a few kilometres away. Both workers survived.
The doctor said that he had never seen someone lose so much blood
and live. One of the community leaders told the newspaper, if
they "weren't here they wouldn't have had anything happen
to them." On the record, one of the local legislators went
further, declaring that if workers come to live in his town like
in Farmingville, "we'll be out there with baseball bats."
A few weeks later, the attackers were arrested, and each sentenced
to 25 years in prison.
When we work for or talk about "migrant workers and rights,"
we need to begin with an understanding of the risks and the vulnerabilities
that workers and their families have simply because they are in
a different country.
A second story is shorter, a story of trafficking for
labor, and involves a woman who had come to the New York area
with the help of someone she knew back in her own country south
of the US border. The people who helped her gave her legal papers
to live and work in America, and a job and room in a house after
she arrived. A few others came at the same time she did, and over
the next two or three years, many more, though not everyone was
given legal papers. What they didn't know until they arrived was
that they were not allowed outside the house ever except when
they were working, and that they would have to give everything
they earned to the people who had brought them there. That's classic
evidence of trafficking. Also classic is that they believed that
if they did anything to complain or escape, either they or someone
they loved would be hurt or even killed.
Yet one day, the woman sent a message to the Church asking for
help to escape. I said, "We will be happy to try to help,
but it's a big decision which we will not make for you. We are
not sure if the police will protect you, imprison you or deport
you, and we are even more afraid of what the people who brought
you might do to you or your family after…"
The lady's answer was quiet but clear: What is happening now
is worse.
Like the two Mexican workers, this woman was helped out
of that terrible situation. But stories like these, too many tough
stories in too many countries, demonstrate the need for greater
understanding, respect-and protection-of the rights of migrant
workers.
Fortunately, there is a LOT of RECENT movement in that direction.
Today I'll talk about two: the International Convention on Migrant
Workers and the report of the Global Commission on International
Migration. Though it was adopted by the United Nations in December
1990, the Convention on Migrant Workers only entered into force
in 2003, and celebrates its third birthday in July. And the report
of the Global Commission just came out at the end of 2005.
I will talk in three parts, three "W's": WWW: workers,
women, and world.
|
