Asean’s obligation to migrant workers
Such a treaty would place legal obligations on both sending and receiving countries to protect the human rights of migrants.
But a legally binding treaty is still far from a reality. Asean seems to have come to a standstill on this issue, and there is now talk of the treaty being simply “morally binding”. Given how dramatically Asean has collectively failed migrants thus far, however, it’s hard to imagine how a morally binding agreement would actually compel governments to act.
The existing declaration on migrant workers already lacks teeth, failing to include any enforcement mechanism to ensure that member states live up to the commitments within it. Unsurprisingly, in the 10 years since the declaration’s adoption, cases of migrants being severely abused abroad have continued to flow in, and few governments have taken concrete action to protect them.
Asean just celebrated its 50th birthday, and there’s no denying that the regional organisation has come far since its inception. But it is also high time to think critically about how Asean moving forward can advance regional protections for all citizens.
Looking ahead, Asean, both as individual states and as a regional body, must review its protection mechanisms to ensure that commitments made on paper result in changes on the ground that will result in Asean living up to its vision of integrity and of “one community”. This should include the adoption of a legally binding treaty protecting the economic, social, cultural, religious and political rights of all migrant workers.
Migration within Asean is not something that will slow down for the foreseeable future. The significant disparities in availability of jobs and income between different countries in the region provide a strong incentive for people to move in search of better opportunities. And Asean’s economic integration process has only encouraged more employers and workers to reach and move across borders. But all too often, these migrants are treated as a security threat, rather than as human beings and contributors to the economy.
Governments have a legitimate need to address undocumented workers in their countries. But doing so through a national security lens is shortsighted and will ultimately be unsuccessful. Instead, individual governments must focus their efforts on ensuring that migrants are protected and not treated as commodities.
Migrant workers are integral to our economic development, both at home and abroad. But they are also people. They are individuals, each with their own stories and reasons for packing their bags and heading to foreign countries to look for work. Many leave behind young children in the care of their elderly parents. The resulting family separation can have long-lasting negative social and psychological impacts on the children, which should also be part of the policy discussion.
Asean governments would do well to bear in mind the human toll that punitive policies toward migrants and a failure to safeguard their rights can have when discussing and implementing policies that affect them.