From the Migrant Forum in Asia
The Asia Regional Civil Society Consultation (RCSC) on the Global Compact for Safe Orderly and Regular Migration was held in Bangkok on 4-5 August 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Asia RCSC aimed to enable Asian CSOs to engage in the Global Compact Process through regional and national engagement and to come up with recommendations and mechanisms for a rights based Global Compact for Migration from the Perspective of Asian CSOs.Participants of the Asia consultation included 70 representatives of regional migrant rights organizations, trade unions, women, children and refugee rights organizations, and humanitarian organizations providing support and assistance for migrants and refugees. Please find attached the list of organizations present in the program.
The Asia process of engagement started as early as 2016 when Asian regional organizations convened for the Asia Civil Society Days, to discuss governance of migration, rights and justice and justice in the context of migration. The one day conference aimed to discuss rights based migration governance means given the ongoing global discourse on a global compact on migration. The collective output of the ACSD targeted the Global Forum on Migration and Development as an advocacy platform. As a follow-up to the ACSD a regional training on understanding mixed migration and the global compact for migration was also organized by Migrant Forum in Asia, the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) and the Global Alliance Against in Women (GAATW) in April 2017. This was followed by an Asia partners meeting in Berlin, Germany during the 2017 GFMD where partners discussed and prioritized the themes for the Asia RCSC.
The discussions in the Asia Civil Society Regional Consultation focused on 8 key themes:
1. Human Rights of Migrants, 2. Children in the Context of Migration, 3. Women, 4. Decent Work, 5. Participation, Mobilization and Accountability, 6. Return, Repatriation and Reintegration, 7. Drivers of Migration, 8. Mixed Migration
Representatives from the UN ESCAP and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) joined the first session of the Asia Consultation in order to provide an update on the upcoming regional and national consultations supported by UN ESCAP and IOM.
During the consultation, participants discussed key principles and recommended mechanisms in line with the 8 Key themes identified. Simultaneous discussions were held followed by a world café to enable all participants to provide inputs to all the themes identified.
As a result of the consultation, an initial draft of the outcome document which will be used by asian civil society for lobbying at the national level and to be submitted at the November ESCAP intergovernmental meeting was drawn up. The document is currently being finalised and will be shared with you in due course.
The consultation was anchored by Migrant Forum in Asia and organised in collaboration with the following regional organisations:
Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), ASEAN Services Employees Trade Union Council (ASETUC), Global Union Federations (GUFS), Caram Asia, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), Solidarity center, South Asia Regional Trade Union Council (SARTUC), Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers (TFAMW).
The Asia Consultation was the first in a series of Regional Civil Society Consultations on the Global Compact for Migration. – GreenWatch Dhaka
Video on a migrant domestic worker:
