Dureza invites migrant workers group to join the GFMD2

MANILA, Oct. 8 (PNA) -- Press Secretary Jesus Dureza today asked the migrant workers groups to join in the two-day 2nd meeting of Global Forum on Migration and Development instead of holding protests to ventilate their own advocacies.

The global meeting is slated on October 27-30 at the Philippine International Convention Center, Manila, where more than 150 United Nations member states and international organizations led by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon are expected to attend.

Dureza, during the formal launching of the GFMD2 at the Kalayaan Hall in Malacanang, said these groups are welcomed to attend this global forum for them to have the chance to air their advocacies, which perhaps the world would benefit from.

“We would like to invite them rather than probably might see them in the streets protesting and making big propaganda out of their advocacies. There is a proper forum to ventilate their ideas and perhaps, the world can benefit from their advocacies,” the Press Secretary said.

The migrant workers groups are reportedly skeptical about the upcoming forum claiming that it would only be a job fair for the Philippine government to promote further overseas deployment of the Filipinos.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, for his part, said as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo underscored “ we are not in here, to the exporting of labor but for the protection of those going abroad.”

He said that it is through this forum that the best practices, initiatives and new measures will be discussed in order to improve the plight of migrants all over the world.