"Pact on migrant workers' rights is PH gift to ASEAN", 11 November 2017

The bright spot of the Philippines' chairmanship of ASEAN...is "the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers."

ASEAN leaders will sign this consensus when they meet in Manila...said Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Robespierre Bolivar.

This "is a centerpiece of the Philippine chairmanship" of ASEAN, Bolivar said....

...In 2007...ASEAN leaders approved commitments under the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

Bolivar said that the consensus signed this year "implements the commitments" contained in this 2007 declaration.

"One of the key features of this ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers is for all countries in Southeast Asia to afford the same level of protection to migrant workers as they do to their own citizens in terms of labor contracts, labor standards, and all of that, access to say legal representation, especially access to consular representation," the DFA spokesman said.

ASEAN countries...view the issue of undocumented migrant workers differently. Singapore and Malaysia view it as a "security threat" while the Philippines and Indonesia see it as a matter of "human rights"....