From May 25-26, Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), the Philippine House Committee on Overseas Workers’ Affairs (COWA), and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) welcome Parliamentarians from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka to Manila for the Parliamentarians’ Forum on Migrant Domestic Workers.

At the invitation of COWA, our guest parliamentarians will join its Committee Meeting on Wednesday, May 25th to discuss the need for regional cooperation on the issues of migrant domestic workers in Asia, and to engage in a dialogue on ensuring protection for migrant domestic workers from the region.  The committee session will be followed by a privileged speech, delivered by Representative Bello in the plenary session of the House of Representatives that will reflect the day’s discussions, and to which the guest parliamentarians are officially invited to attend as observers.

On May 26th, MFA will host a series of workshops designed to encourage learning and exchange of information among parliamentarians, with civil society organizations taking on a facilitative function, on the changing response of stakeholders to migrant domestic workers’ issues in receiving states, and the roles of parliamentarians in engaging in this important area.

These two days of discussion will be followed by a press event at the Sulo Riviera Hotel, Quezon City, Philippines, at which the visiting parliamentarians will issue a joint media statement outlining their shared commitments as decided over the preceding two days.

This collaboration among parliamentarians from labour sending countries is more crucial than ever, as the 100th Session of the International Labour Conference of the International Labour Organization will convene in Geneva, Switzerland this June to decide on the text for an international standard setting out the rights of domestic workers.  This program will provide significant space for parliamentarians of labor sending countries to exchange talking points and dialogue on their countries’ support for the ILO Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.

We welcome the following parliamentarians as our distinguished guests:

BANGLADESH
Mr. Md. Israfil Alam
Member of Parliament
Chairman, Standing Committee on Ministry of Labour and Employment
Chairman, Extreme Poverty Cluster of All Party Parliamentary Group

Mr. Mustaque Ahmed Ruhi
Member of Parliament
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment

CAMBODIA
His Excellency Sophirith Kim
Member of the Cambodian National Assembly

His Excellency Son Chhay
Member of the Cambodian National Assembly

INDONESIA
Ms. Eva Kusuma Sundari
Member of Parliament, Indonesia
Fraksi Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan
DPR-RI

SRI LANKA
Mr. Uda Widanalage Shantha Bandara
Member of Parliament, Kurunegala District
Sri Lanka

Shehan Assanka Semasinghe
Member of Parliament, Anuradhapura District
Sri Lanka