RP migrants at UK Parliament on rights

INQUIRER.net
Posted date: June 07, 2009

MANILA, Philippines—The organization of Filipino migrants Kanlungan has spoken at the Houses of Parliament to highlight the plight of undocumented migrants in the United Kingdom.

The public discussion at the Westminster Palace in London on June 2 focused on recent researches detailing ways to irregular status as against the impact of regularization programs amidst the worldwide recession that’s also gripping UK.

Kanlungan said it tried to steer the discussion on the issue of migration into migrants as people, not migration as a social and economic phenomenon.

“So many studies have focused too much on the economic and political aspects of migration, that sometimes it can be too easily forgotten that what we are talking about here are people,” said Kanlungan project worker Jamima Fagta during her speech at the dialogue.

Fagta told the forum that previously regular migrant workers become irregular migrants in the UK due to the new rules affecting the extension of working permits or visas. For instance, she said, a caregiver who entered the UK in 2003 was forced to become an undocumented migrant when the UK government issued new rules on visas for foreign workers.

She said that in hard times, migrants become easy targets of blame.

“It is the blood, sweat and tears of Filipino migrant workers who pay for the Philippine foreign debt, a debt in which a significant part is owned by UK banks, so [their] bankers can continue to enjoy massive bonuses and pensions in spite of the recession,” Fagta explained.

“We are not criminals. We are not stealing jobs. In the end, what we ask is to be treated as human beings,” she added.

Kanlungan, a consortium of Filipino migrant organizations in the UK, campaign for justice for senior care workers, whose right to work and stay were severely affected following the changes in immigration rules by the UK government. It is also engaged in the call for the protection and regularization of all undocumented migrants, as well as in the campaign against the proposed Citizenship Bill prolonging the settlement and residency of foreign workers.

In a statement, Kanlungan said Migrants’ Rights Network, a group of migrants’ rights advocates, led the June 2 meeting which coincided with the launch of their new publication “Irregular migrants: the urgent need for a new approach.”

Various migrants’ organizations and institutions, local trade unions, and other civil society formations attended the launch, which was chaired by Member of Parliament Jon Cruddas of Dagenham.