Ireland urged to back migrant rights charter

AS the Global Forum on Migration concludes its meeting in Brussels, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) would like to restate the importance of protection and rights for migrant workers and their families and again calls on Ireland and other EU member states to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families (1990).

This would go a long way to ensuring maximum opportunities and minimising the risks of labour mobility at a global level, one of the key themes of the forum in Brussels.

Failure of countries to ratify the UN convention sends a powerful negative message of a reluctance to prioritise and recognise the role of states in protecting migrant workers and their families.

Minimising risks of labour mobility means treating migrant workers as individual human beings with different needs, not as disposable economic units who serve the needs of economy.

The development of inclusive integration strategies is vital in setting a new paradigm that ensures equality and respect for diversity in a new Europe. Such integration strategies will guarantee that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.

Bobby Gilmore, Chairperson

Jacqueline Healy, Acting Director

Migrant Rights Centre

Ireland

55 Parnell Square West

Dublin 1