Migrant workers spark debate in Asean meet

‘Minefield of problems’ when workers become commodities



Manila-- The rights of Southeast Asia’s vast army of migrant workers are proving to be a source of dispute for regional nations looking to agree a labor deal this week, an official said Wednesday.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) plans to issue a declaration at its annual summit aimed at shoring up the rights and working conditions of the bloc’s migrant labor force.

But senior economic officials were reduced to arguing over line-by-line changes to the statement on Wednesday, with nations at odds over extending rights to the families of immigrant workers, the official said.

“The whole issue of migrant labor in Southeast Asia is a minefield of problems,” said the official, who did not want to be named.

He said Indonesian insistence on including “migrant workers and their families” was being strongly resisted by Singapore and Malaysia, two of the region’s biggest recipients of migrant labor.

Human rights and labor groups around the region have called on Asean to improve the pay and conditions of migrant workers, many of whom are exploited and paid low wages.

William Gois, regional coordinator for Migrant Forum in Asia, said migrant workers were the “backbone” of the region’s economic success but at the same time were treated miserably.

“The problem for Asean is to come up with a document that will be taken seriously and incorporate labor standards including freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, and eliminate all forms of discrimination at the workplace,” he said.

“Asean should also recognize that its people are not tradable commodities.”

Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam are the region’s main suppliers of labor, providing skilled and unskilled workers, while Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand are among the major recipients.

Gois said no one knows how many legal and illegal migrant workers there are in Southeast Asia but said it was “reasonable to assume that the figure would be many millions.”

He added: “Countries like Singapore and Malaysia are heavily dependent on migrant labor. Without them their economies would face serious problems.”

He said the number of undocumented migrant workers in Malaysia from Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar probably topped 200,000.

“Nearly all those working on Malaysia’s rubber plantations are migrant workers, while countries like Singapore seek out skilled technical people,” he said.

Gois said Asean should recognize the contributions made by millions of migrant workers to the economies of its members.

Migrant workers are one of several high-priority topics on this year’s Asean agenda, which also includes a new accord on fighting terrorism and preparing the way for a mini-constitution to make the bloc an EU-style legal entity.