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By APD writer Melo M. Acuna
**MANILA, Oct. 10(APD) – **The Department of Foreign Affairs said the government has been implementing measures that would ensure better treatment and protection for Filipinos and other migrants as provided in the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration.
In a statement released today, the DFA said this was the gist of the Philippine intervention at the International Dialogue for Migration in Geneva yesterday with Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Y. Arriola informing foreign counterparts Manila has been implementing the Compact on Migration even before its signing in December.
She said the measures undertaken by the Philippines highlight the experiences and recommendations of stakeholders worldwide in addressing challenges and opportunities in migration and allowing the conversation to continue to lead up to the final signing of the Compact.
“In August this year, a month after the final text of the Compact was approved in New York, the Philippines hosted the Manila Conference on the Future of Migration to build on and keep the momentum of the Compact from July on the final signatures of leaders in Marrakesh in December,” Undersecretary Arriola said.
Among the issues discussed in Manila were human rights of migrants, drivers of migration, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons and other forms of exploitation and abuse, decent work, and labor and skills mobility along with international cooperation and migration governance.
She added the Conference proposed a three-fold approach to addressing the complexities of migration. These includes getting international consensus and universalization of the Compact’s principles, universal adherence to relevant international agreements, and the optimal use of global and regional organizational and processes.
The final text of the Compact, which is due for adoption in December 2018 in Morocco is firmly anchored on human rights and promotion of welfare of migrants regardless of migration status and particularly domestic workers at its core which will benefit more than 10 million Filipinos overseas, according to the DFA statement.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
