Through the hearing, migrant worker advocates aim to highlight the responsibilities of states of origin in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador during these processes.
The United States,
alone, has provided more than 50,000 visas (H-2A) per year for
temporary work, most occupied by Mexican people. This demand for
temporary foreign labour has created a loophole exploited by false
recruiters, who claim to provide jobs in the U.S. and Canada
by offering so-called visas to cross the border "legally". But, in
reality, these promises are often just money scams that result in
workers and their families losing everything, and sometimes putting
their personal safety in jeopardy by indebting themselves to loan
sharks.
Making matters worse, workers also experience rights violations while in host countries.
More
than 90 percent of Mexican nationals who have gone to the U.S. with an
H-2A visa have reported labour violations, while 30 percent of these
workers don't know who recruited them, or even who they work for.
In Guatemala,
2,568 H-2B visas were issued in 2012. However, the country's biggest
problem has been the confiscation of land titles by recruiters.
In El Salvador, 825 people have participated in the Temporary Workers Program, mostly in Canada. Despite its small number, El Salvador doesn't track its citizens when they're working abroad, thus failing in its obligation to protect them.
Also under Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program between Canada and Mexico,
migrant workers have been denied their right to association with the
complicity of the Mexican government, whose interference was documented
before labour tribunals in Canada.
The
application for the IACHR hearing, filed under "vulnerability situation
of labour rights of temporary migrants generated from their countries
of origin", is the result of coordinated efforts of United Food and
Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW Canada)
Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA), Global Workers Justice Alliance
(Global Workers), Instituto de Estudios y Divulgacion sobre Migracion
A.C. (INEDIM), Instituto de Estudios de la Mujer Norma Virginia Guirola
de Herrera
(CEMUJER), Proyecto Binacional Jornaleros Safe, Respuesta Alternativa,
A.C., Red Regional de Organizaciones Civiles para las Migraciones
(RROCM) capitulo El Salvador conformadas por la Asociacion Salvadorena de Educacion Financiera (ASEFIN), Grupo de Monitoreo Independiente de El Salvador (GMIES), Iglesia Anglicana Episcopal, Instituto Salvadoreno del Migrante (INSAMI), la Red Internacional Scalabrini
para las Migraciones (SIMN) and Soleterre. The Commission has the power
to publicize and promote the observance and defense of human rights,
including those of persons in the context of human mobility. These
rights are enshrined in the American Declaration of the Rights and
Duties of Man and the American Convention on Human Rights. If accepted,
this hearing could lead to specific recommendations to prevent and stop
current violations of temporary migrant workers' rights.
For more information, contact by country:
El Salvador: comunicagmies@gmail.com
Mexico: scruickshanks.inedim@gmail.com
USA: cathleen@globalworkers.org
Canada: andrea.galvez@ufcw.mx
Guatemala omar@globalworkers.org
El Salvador: comunicagmies@gmail.com
Mexico: scruickshanks.inedim@gmail.com
USA: cathleen@globalworkers.org
Canada: andrea.galvez@ufcw.mx
Guatemala omar@globalworkers.org
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