Combatting Illegal Immigration Practices: Enhancing Rights of Migrant Workers

1. Workshop on Unscrupulous Immigration Consultants Guatemala City December 2014 REGIONAL NETWORK FOR CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS ON MIGRATION – RNCOM

2. RNCOM is pleased to participate in the Workshop on Unscrupulous Immigration Consultants and thanks the Government of Canada and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala for the support which has enabled us to take part in the workshop.

3. RNCOM observes with concern the limitations faced by migrants in terms of access to appropriate information concerning the requirements for obtaining the necessary documents in countries of origin and destination. • We insist on the need to facilitate the simplification of relevant procedures and to issue documents at reasonable costs, since the high costs are a critical issue hindering regularization and preventing actions by unscrupulous immigration consultants or intermediaries that violate the rights of migrants. • We urge States to implement actions with a comprehensive and integrated approach, providing legal aid and psychosocial assistance especially to migrants in vulnerable situations.

4. Consulates should strengthen relevant actions to ensure access of migrants to legal representation. (Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963). • We insist on the need for awareness-raising and training of consular staff regarding assistance and advice for migrants, in order to prevent abuse and violations of the rights of migrant populations.

5. We request that the documents issued by consulates abroad be recognized and validated in countries of origin and destination. This would facilitate migrants’ access to the required documents and thus, would prevent them from being deceived by unscrupulous immigration consultants. • Some migrant worker recruitment processes and programmes do not consider the real needs of migrant populations in countries of origin and destination.

6. The management model applied in El Salvador and Honduras for the recruitment, selection and hiring of temporary workers to Canada is a best practice since, given that limited regulations exist on this matter, the guidelines established in this document are parameters to ensure the prevention of abuses. • These types of models should be replicated in processes with other countries and efforts should be made to develop more comprehensive regulations in countries of origin, including protection against abuses, enforceability of rights and mobile justice, in accordance with applicable international instruments. • In many cases, national laws enable Ministries of Labour to place migrant workers in private agencies without knowing under which conditions the workers will be hired and what types of guarantees and rights will be granted to them.

7. Migrant workers have very limited access to justice due to lack of policies oriented toward ensuring effective processes to report violations of the rights of migrant workers, and accompaniment, protection and follow-up on specific cases. • Temporary or seasonal work opportunities abroad should be negotiated, controlled and monitored by governments and civil society organizations, with the aim of increasing the employability levels of the population.

8. RNCOM is concerned about the lack of monitoring and regulation of private enterprises and recruiting agencies providing services to migrant workers, which violate the rights of migrant workers without any type of penalty by relevant authorities. • Migrant workers often deal with subcontractors, who are intermediaries in processes to hire migrants to work in large enterprises, and are frequently placed in vulnerable situations and deceived in regard to the conditions that were initially offered to them. • In many cases, employers and enterprises operate in complete impunity, abusing and exploiting migrant workers. • Therefore, it is important to establish mechanisms to ensure consular assistance and protection of the labour rights of migrant workers.

9. Immigration legislation of countries in the region should be reviewed regarding work permits, since in many cases workers depend on employers to have regular migration status and the laws do not consider that the rights of the workers could be violated and that they could continue working under conditions of abuse for fear of losing their regular migration status. • The Ministries of Labour should strengthen actions implemented by labour inspectors. Given that the inspection systems are weak, migrant workers are vulnerable to human rights violations such as trafficking in persons for the purpose of labour exploitation.

10. Information campaigns focused on migrants are required to appropriately inform migrants that they do not need to hire private immigration consultants or lawyers in order to obtain the necessary documents. Such consultants or lawyers offer their services, claiming that they can facilitate the process and ensure that migrants obtain the required documents, and charge high fees and deceive their clients.

11. It should be highlighted that the lack of ratification of the instruments of the International Labour Organization – such as Migrant Workers Convention, No. 97 (1949) and Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, No. 143 (1975) and its Recommendations 86 & 151 – does not create favourable conditions for labour migration. • Countries that have yet to ratify ILO Private Employment Agencies Convention, No. 181 (1997), determining the roles of these enterprises during the hiring process, should do so.

12. We urge governments to fulfil the commitments concerning the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, and the countries that have yet to ratify the Convention to do so. • We urge the governments that have already ratified the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families to recognize the competence of the Migrant Workers Committee in order to enable reporting violations of the rights recognized in the Convention, in accordance with Articles 76 & 77.

13. RNCOM recognizes the provision of Barack Obama, President of the United States, to sign an Executive Order to bring relief to millions of families living in the United States in an irregular manner, as a step forward. • We believe that it is urgent that Member States of RCM develop an information campaign oriented toward migrant populations, in the United States and in their communities of origin, with the aim of preventing deception and abuse by unscrupulous immigration consultants.

14. In view of the obvious demand for documents, we propose the following actions: • Allocating more resources to national consulates; • Facilitating late registration processes at consulates in countries of origin, highlighting the right to an identity and preventing the risk of statelessness.

15. Thank you www.rrocm.org stcidehumrrocm@gmail.com