At the People’s Summit for a Global Pact of Solidarity with Migrants and Refugees, held in Marrakech December 8th and 9th of 2018, hosted by La Via Campesina(*) and its member organisations of the Middle East and North Africa (MeNa) Process, the global peasant movement and its allies have issued a scathing critique of the Global Compact on Migration and rejected it.
The Agreement on an International Pact of Solidarity and Unity Of Action For The Full Rights Of All Migrants And Refugees, issued at the summit says;
“In this summit, we have concluded that the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) does not represent a change in the anti-migrant policies and current offensive against migrants and refugees being waged by many States, especially of the North. The GCM is more of the same: migrants as cheap labour, criminalised for simply being migrants. Analysing it further, we consider the GCM a step backwards with respect to human rights and the protection of migrants and our families as established in past International Conventions approved by the United Nations and other institutions such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
“While it is true that some countries have decided not to sign the GCM, this is not the result of their is agreement with the agreement which represent a step backward regarding migrant rights. Their disagreement is motivated by a refusal of any multi-lateral engagement on migration. Those state have clearly stated their anti-migrant position. The GCM proposes to discipline and organise migration to serve the interests of States and their true owners, transnational corporations and financial capital. Other than a few apparent mentions of migrants, human rights are left beneath security concerns of states and economies.
“For the above reasons, we express our public rejection of the Global Compact for Migration and place in the hands of social movements, collectives for the protection of migrants’ human rights, progressive States and civil society, our alternative that brings together the spirit, conclusions and recommendations of our Summit.”
(*) La Via Campesina is an international movement that brings together millions of farmers, small and medium-sized farmers, the landless, women and youth in rural areas, indigenous people, migrants and farm workers from around the world. Based on a strong sense of unity and solidarity between these groups, it defends peasant agriculture and food sovereignty as a means of promoting social justice and human dignity, while strongly rejecting corporate agriculture that destroys the social fabric and nature.
