PH Steers Crucial ASPAC Meet on International Agreement to Protect Migrant Workers 

07 November 2017 — The Philippines will be spearheading discussions on an international agreement that seeks to better protect migrant workers with the unanimous election on Monday of a senior foreign affairs official as chair of an important regional consultative meeting being held in Bangkok.

In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs welcomed the election of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Y. Arriola as Chairperson of the three-day Asia-Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting (RPM) for the Global Compact on Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration (GCM).

"We welcome the election of Undersecretary Arriola as chairperson of the regional meeting as this bodes well for our advocacy for the protection of the rights and promotion of the welfare of Filipino migrants," Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano said.

“The election of Undersecretary Arriola is another affirmation of the leadership of the Philippines on international migration governance in the Asia-Pacific region”, said Ambassador Evan P. Garcia, Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

The Asia-Pacific RPM is one of the regional consultation meetings called for by the 2016 New York Declaration on large movement of migrants and refugees.  Its outcome will feed into the stocktaking meeting of the GCM process scheduled from 4 to 6 December in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The stocktaking meeting, in turn, is expected to produce the first draft GCM.

Undersecretary Arriola said the Philippine interagency delegation, which she co-heads, is pursuing the mandate of President Duterte’s administration “to maximize all avenues and forums where the rights, interests and welfare of overseas Filipino workers could be advanced.”

As chair of the regional meeting, Undersecretary Arriola said the Philippines will help mobilize and consolidate the inputs of the entire Asia-Pacific region for the GCM stock-taking meeting in Mexico.

The RPM is organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the development arm of the UN in the region, which accounts for 102 million international migrants.

According to UNESCAP, remittances of migrants in the region are estimated to reach US$276 billion this year. It said one fourth of the GDP of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Nepal are derived from remittances of their international migrants.

Established in 1947, the Bangkok-based UNESCAP is made up of 53 Member States and nine associate members and is the largest UN body serving the Asia-Pacific. END