The Philippine government is looking to raise several issues that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are facing during negotiations for a global pact that aims to protect the rights of migrant workers across the globe.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Labor and Employment have started preparations for the upcoming negotiations on United Nation’s Global Compact on Migration (GCM), which will be the first inter-governmentally negotiated agreement that will cover all dimensions of international migration.
DFA Spokesman Robespierre Bolivar said among the issues that will be laid out are concerns on insurance, repatriation cost, minimum wages, labor condition, and number of days off, Business Mirror reported.
“The GCM aims to promote the welfare of migrant workers and their families, which has always been an advocacy of the Philippines,” Business Mirror quoted Bolivar as saying.
Government leaders consider GCM meetings as a perfect avenue to streamline actions to protect OFWs rights, as it will be participated by over 190 nations.
GCM is expected to establish framework and mechanisms to better uphold security, respect for human rights, and access to justice.
GCM negotiations will start on January 2018.
“We hope all the countries will abide by the commitments they made,” Bolivar added.
All eyes on ‘frontline of migration’
Evan Garcia, the country’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, said GCM could boost efforts to assure that OFWs “are properly treated as human beings.
He said the government could draw ideas from “real-world experiences” of OFWs in the Middle East, which is considered as the “frontline of migration”.
“We have millions of OFWs outside the Middle East but it is in the Middle East where migration has tended to be the focus of attention
Photo credit: GMA news
