Grassroots migrant groups to meet in Athens

Athens, Greece, will be the setting Nov. 1-4 for the Second International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees. Migrants and refugees from grassroots organizations around the world will speak out on the horrific conditions facing workers who have to leave their homelands.

The IAMR is supported by a broad spectrum of migrants’ rights advocates, progressive workers’ groups and social movements. Their gathering will counter the government-led Global Forum on Migration and Development and the Civil Society Organizations, which are meeting the same week in Athens.

Teresa Gutierrez, an officer of the International Migrants’ Alliance, a major convener of the Second IAMR, stressed, “We are coming to Greece representing the voices of millions of migrants and refugees the world over, and we will firmly argue for our rights and interests.”

While the GFMD—the state-led initiative—claims to facilitate dialogue among the countries that send and receive immigrant workers, Gutierrez explained that the richest countries dictate the agendas, themes and goals there. “They [the GFMD] impose their own self-serving concept of ‘development’ and define the modalities in ‘managing’ the flow of cross-border migration,” said Gutierrez.

The IAMR will challenge the governments’ forum. It will highlight the true picture of the oppression and exploitation that underlie labor migration. At plenaries and workshops participants will debunk the notion of countries gaining economic “development” through exporting human labor. They will tell of the horrors, struggles and tragedies of forced migration experienced by migrant workers, their families and communities.

These forums are occurring in Europe, as Gutierrez pointed out, where migrant workers, especially the millions of undocumented, face an uncertain future in an increasingly hostile environment. The ominous European Union Return Directive, which begins in 2010, will worsen conditions even more.

Passed last year by the European Parliament, this brutal, inhumane measure allows European Union member countries to imprison undocumented migrants for up to 18 months before deporting them, and then to ban them from returning for five years. Progressive forces worldwide have condemned this policy.

The IAMR gathering will include plenary sessions, workshops and street mobilizations. Major goals are to network, share experiences among migrants, refugees and their advocates—and plan actions. Workshops will take up how migrant workers are affected by the global capitalist economic crisis and by state repression, racism and discrimination. Others will discuss women migrants’ issues, labor rights and social movements, political empowerment, and educational campaigns for migrants, refugees and advocates.

Conveners of the Second IAMR are the International Migrants’ Alliance, Migrante International, Migrante Europe, ATIK (Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe), the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, the Philippine-based IBON International, and progressive Greek organizations, including the Union of Working People and Class March.