Enlargement Exploitation

international | eu | opinion/analysis

Monday April 26, 2004 19:36

by Fergus

“…another truth about fortress continents: being on the inside may be better than being locked out, but it's no guarantee of equal status.”
- Naomi Klein.

The existing policies of the Irish govt. to safeguard the rights of migrant workers and their families are "deficient and lacking in scope."
- Human Rights Commission.

The govt. says that the exploitation of migrant workers in Ireland is not a major problem, but this report reveals hidden levels of exploitation at the heart of our economy - including employers who are household names and considered "pillars" of their communities.
- Prime Time Investigates, Monday, 26 April, RTE1, 9.30pm

“A fortress continent is a bloc of nations that joins forces to extract favorable trade terms from other countries, while patrolling their shared external borders to keep people from those countries out. But if a continent is serious about being a fortress, it also has to invite one or two poor countries within its walls, because somebody has to do the dirty work and heavy lifting. It's a model being pioneered in Europe, where the European Union is currently expanding to include 10 poor eastern bloc countries, at the same time that it uses increasingly aggressive security methods to deny entry to immigrants from even poorer countries, like Iraq and Nigeria.”
- Naomi Klein

From blueprint to deportation
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=63474

“…another truth about fortress continents: being on the inside may be better than being locked out, but it's no guarantee of equal status.”

From blueprint to exploitation
The existing policies of the Irish govt. to safeguard the rights of migrant workers and their families are "deficient and lacking in scope."
The Human Rights Commission has said there is a resistance at govt. level to protect the rights of immigrant workers.
The International Convention on the Protection of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (ICPMWF) http://www.unesco.org/migration/convention
has not been ratified here.
This international human rights legislation came into force in July 2003 to protect a range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights
but it has been ignored by the Irish govt.

"It is not as if the govt. has not been reminded enough."
"We ask why and will keep asking why we have been so slow to ratify it"
- Human Rights Commission

If you're looking for answers, read this Mr. HRC?
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wto/news/0116Strongholds.htm
http://www.nologo.org/newsite/essay.php

The cutting edge of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue
"It's very easy for govts. to hide behind Brussels as if it were something we're not involved in.
For anti-poverty groups in Ireland, a lot of them are very surprised to find that in many cases,
Ireland is the country blocking, for example, for many years giving legal status to the Charter for fundamental rights,
that Ireland is a country blocking greater discussion about the inequities brought up by taxation,
that Ireland is the country blocking a stronger social policy in many areas..."
- European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland

From blueprint to welfare disintegration
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=63786

EU En-blahblahblah-ment.
Nevermind the bollocks about tourists, here's the

"Guests of the Nation"
The govt. says that the exploitation of migrant workers in Ireland is not a major problem, but this report reveals hidden levels of exploitation at the heart of our economy - including employers who are household names and considered "pillars" of their communities.
- Prime Time Investigates, Monday, 26 April, RTE1, 9.30pm

They ask why and will continue to ask whyThey ask why and will continue to ask whyThey ask why and will continue to ask whyThey ask why and will continue to ask whyThey ask why and will continue to ask whyThey ask why and will continue to be paid to speak to a wall?