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“Migrants generally need a reason to move. It is, after all, a disturbing experience, leaving home and family to face a new country and a strange culture. Workers in the developing countries initially showed little inclination to migrate. The colonial powers had to move them around, by force if necessary – first as slaves, then as indentured workers and finally as voluntary recruits,” said Peter Stalker in his book The Work of Strangers.

© Oxfam America / Andrew MillerMigrant workers' convention On July 1, progress was made in terms of migrants’ rights when the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families entered into force. The international legal system gained a good tool to defend migrant workers, who are providing key contributions in such sectors as agriculture, construction, high tech and (domestic) services. These workers are, however, increasingly subject to racism, discrimination, abuse and violent attacks.

175 million people are estimated to be living outside their country of birth

That’s why December 18 - an NGO promoting and protecting migrants’ rights - welcomed the entry into force of the convention, despite it taking thirteen years to achieve. The downside of this success however is that only a handful - 23 to date - of countries ratified it. Some countries that consider themselves the human rights champions of the democratic world still refuse to ratify.

Are migrants’ rights no longer human rights? Are human rights only useful when it comes to protecting your own people, your own profits and your own ideas?

The convention is a necessary universal basic standard and legal instrument that aims to protect the human rights of both documented and undocumented migrant workers. It requires States to prevent and eradicate illegal migration - sending and receiving - and to inform both migrants and citizens - including employers - about their rights and obligations.

As migration is not a one-way ticket without possibility of return or without a future in the host country, the convention looks at the obligations of both the sending and receiving countries, throughout the full migration process.

Why do Filipino women, promised jobs as domestic migrant workers, end up in European brothels?

Slipping through the net A global solution to address the situation of undocumented persons is needed alongside this “brand-new” legal instrument. Whilst most irregular migration occurs in the South, South-North migration will continue to increase - with or without the convention - because of the ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor, as well as improved communication and transportation means.

175 million people are estimated to be living outside their country of birth, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Lack of communication between States and their citizens and migrants allows, in a way, trafficking networks freedom of movement, inhuman treatment of immigrants and people to enter nations where unregistered, dangerous and hard jobs await them.

The main obstacle to more protection of the human rights of migrants is the lack of political will

Why do labour-intensive industries continue to exist in the North? How do African citizens manage to cross the Melilla fence between Morocco and Spain when nobody permits them entry? How does a Latin American citizen buy European papers to get into the Schengen area? Why do Filipino women, promised jobs as domestic migrant workers, end up in European brothels? How can 2.5 million Mexicans living in the U.S. – out of 7.5 million – be unauthorised?*.

According to IOM the convention is only a step forward and no panacea. Neither, then, is migration management if it refuses to look at those who are really profiting from globalisation and the vulnerability of migrants. The main obstacle to more protection of the human rights of migrants is the lack of political will.

*IOM Annual report 2000

Rosaura Audi is Editor of December 18. She is an Argentinean journalist and international editor of Télam – the Argentinean national news agency.

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