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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Asean deal for migrant workers

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LEADERS of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations have agreed to sign a landmark agreement that will promote and protect the rights of migrant workers, President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday.

“I am pleased to announce that Asean member states have come to an agreement on the Asean consensus on the protection and promotion of rights of migrant workers. I will be joining other Asean leaders tomorrow in signing this landmark document that would strengthen social protection, access to justice, humane and fair treatment and access to health services for our people,” the President said in his speech during the opening of the 31st Asean Summit and Related Meetings in Manila. 

Other deliverables that will see the fruition at the end of the Philippines’ chairmanship include those concerning health, women and the youth, terrorism, radicalization and violent extremism, trafficking, poverty alleviation, food security, coastal and marine environment and the pursuit of innovation for our economies, among others, Duterte said. 

The Consensus comes 10 years after the regional bloc adopted the Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers in Cebu in 2007.

Earlier, Foreign Affairs Spokesman Robespierre Bolivar said the signing of the agreement was the “centerpiece” of the Philippines’ chairmanship.

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The Philippines is a major labor exporter with some 10 million Filipinos working abroad and contributing about 10 percent to the country’s gross domestic product.

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas shows overseas Filipino workers sent $17.9 billion (around P915 billion) to their families in the Philippines in the first seven months of 2017.

According to the World Bank, approximately $62 billion (P3 trillion) in remittances, were sent to Asean in 2015.

 

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