Migrants should have basic rights UN report

The migration of an estimated billion people around the world currently, gets special emphasis in a report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched in Bangkok yesterday.

"The report's overriding message is that migration - both across and within borders - has the potential to improve human welfare, if we get it right," UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva chaired the ceremony to release the report.

Clark said migration will likely increase during economic recession as people move in search of better opportunities. And she believed such migration could facilitate economic growth as it allows employers to make contact with those who need jobs.

The UNDP hoped governments would allow more alien migrant workers to enter their countries legally and to enjoy basic rights.

Currently, the world has about 1 billion migrants, of whom 740 million are internal migrants who move within their own countries, and 70 million migrating from developing countries to developed ones.

The remaining 200 million are international migrants who move from developing countries to other developing countries.

Often, it is the poorest migrants, those employed at unskilled jobs, who are the most abused by existing migration practices and immigration systems.

"Registered migrants should be granted access to public health while their children should have access to educational services," Clark said.

In Thailand- home to more than 3 million migrant workers - Clark said there were many migrant groups and Thai authorities had a system to deal with them. She recommended strict laws as the means to crack down on human trafficking and to bring human traffickers to justice.

Clark called on Abhisit at the Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday to discuss how to solve problems relating to migration and migrants.

Abhisit agreed that laws were the best solution. "Thailand has already passed relevant laws," he added.

He vowed to work with UNDP in further improving human resources.