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Government officials, representatives of inter-governmental agencies, trade unions and civil society groups gathered from around the world to discuss issues relating to "migration and development," at the 2nd Meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), held October 27-30, 2008 in Manila, Philippines.

The 4-day meeting consisted of the Civil Society Days (Oct.27-28) and the Government Meeting (Oct.29-30). On the afternoon of Oct.28 was the interface session between civil society and the government, and representatives of the Civil Society Days participated in the Government Meeting.

Parallel to the GFMD, a group of NGOs organized the "Peoples' Global Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights (PGA)," from 22 to 30 October 2008, in Manila.

As part of the Campaign Against Exploitative Migration and Human Trafficking, 48 organizations/individuals including IMADR issued a "Joint NGO Proposal on Exploitative Migration and Human Trafficking, addressed to States participating in the Second Global Forum on Migration and Development" and submitted it to the Chair of the Government Meeting.

The content of this proposal was based on the Joint NGO Proposal issued on the occasion of this year's G8 Summit Meeting in July. While the G8 document focused on the responsibility of receiving countries of migrants and trafficked persons, the document for the GFMD referred to the responsibilities of both sending and receiving countries.

Although the overall theme of the 2nd GFMD was "Protecting and Empowering Migrants for Development," actually the issue of primary concern of the Government Meeting seemed to be "how international migration can contribute to national economic development." Here, migrants tend to be considered "labor force" or "labor commodities in the global market," rather than holders of various rights. The Joint NGO Proposal contests this framework, emphasizing that the human rights and human security of each individual migrant should be the central focus. This was precisely the point reiterated during the discussions at the GFMD Civil Society Days, as well as the ideas that formed the basis of the slogans of the PGA: "migrants' rights are human rights" and "migrant workers are not commodities."

The full text of the Joint NGO Proposal to the GFMD can be downloaded from here (PDF696KB）

Detailed information regarding the GFMD and PGA are on the following webpages:
・GFMD website (external link)
・PGA website (external link)