October 29, 2008 has been chosen by an alliance of 112 organizations worldwide to protest the “forced migration and systemic exploitation of cheap labor.” Dubbed as the “Zero Remittance Day,” the sobering event is timely when a sovereign country like the Philippines has resorted to send its most precious human asset abroad—-the young men and women who are forced to seek menial jobs abroad and bring the needed dollars to shore up the economy. For being a major source of government funds, overseas foreign workers (OFW’s) are regarded as RP’s milking cows.
According to the International Migrants Alliance (IMA,) the protest action coincides with holding of the Global Forum on Migrant Development (GFMD,) which will be in Manila, Philippines. The IMA lambasts GFMD for being an elitist organization which fails to tackle the fundamental problems and issues concerning the growing number of migrants who suffer exploitation, abuses on the job, cheap labor compensation and family displacement. (Photo Credit: blinkdesigns.org) =0=
Ibalon 