More than 200 Organisations: Inhumane Deportation Rules Should be Rejected
On 11 March 2025, the European Commission presented a new proposal for a Return Regulation to replace the current Return Directive. Behind the euphemistic name, the proposal outlines coercive, traumatising, and rights-violating measures premised on an imperative of increasing deportation rates. Instead of focusing on protection, housing, healthcare and education, the Regulation is premised on punitive policies, detention centres, deportation and enforcement.
More than 200 Organisations: Inhumane Deportation Rules Should be Rejected
On 11 March 2025, the European Commission presented a new proposal for a Return Regulation to replace the current Return Directive. Behind the euphemistic name, the proposal outlines coercive, traumatising, and rights-violating measures premised on an imperative of increasing deportation rates. Instead of focusing on protection, housing, healthcare and education, the Regulation is premised on punitive policies, detention centres, deportation and enforcement.
Uphold Human Security And Human Rights, End Mass Deportations And State Repression
Please click here for the PDF version. Para leer la versión en español, dé click aquí.
GAATW stands in full solidarity with human rights advocates and organisations in the urgent call to stop the systems of securitisation, surveillance, and state-led repression that are being used across the US and beyond to criminalise migrants, immigrants and refugees, including trafficked persons.
Under the guise of national security, states are justifying mass deportations, detention and racial profiling, acts that violate fundamental rights and human dignity. In the past months, we have witnessed reports of migrants from working-class groups in the US being forcibly removed from homes, school premises and workplaces by authorities WITHOUT any due process. Many have taken the matter to social media to alert people and disseminate information about raids, checkpoints and patrols in targeted areas.[1]
Uphold Human Security And Human Rights, End Mass Deportations And State Repression
Please click here for the PDF version. Para leer la versión en español, dé click aquí.
GAATW stands in full solidarity with human rights advocates and organisations in the urgent call to stop the systems of securitisation, surveillance, and state-led repression that are being used across the US and beyond to criminalise migrants, immigrants and refugees, including trafficked persons.
Under the guise of national security, states are justifying mass deportations, detention and racial profiling, acts that violate fundamental rights and human dignity. In the past months, we have witnessed reports of migrants from working-class groups in the US being forcibly removed from homes, school premises and workplaces by authorities WITHOUT any due process. Many have taken the matter to social media to alert people and disseminate information about raids, checkpoints and patrols in targeted areas.[1]
During the Voice and Participation meeting in Chiang Mai in February 2023, the room was delighted when Pim introduced herself as the community organiser at MAP Foundation and radio jockey at the MAP radio station. Her role as Radio jockey (RJ) at the MAP radio station is linked to her social and cultural roots in the Shan community as well as her work as a community organiser of domestic workers in Thailand. In subsequent conversations with her, we learnt that she migrated to Chiang Mai, Thailand from Shan State in Burma for a better life and to work. She has worked in many roles - domestic worker, waitress, nanny, and now as a community organiser in MAP Foundation. There are other former migrants who are also now presenters and DJs at the MAP radio station in both Chiang Mai and Mae Sot.[1]
‘History/Our Story’ Workshop: Creating a space of belonging
This is an in-depth interview with our partner Mission d'intervention et de sensibilisation contre la traite des êtres humains (henceforth, MIST) about their ‘History/ Our Story’ workshop. The workshop is an activity curated for and with MIST members. It is designed to better understand how members’ personal stories are intertwined with the history of humankind using movies. MIST members watch the movies together and discuss topics connected to the history of slavery, the civil rights movement in the United States, and women’s fight for their legal rights. This workshop is conducted every second Tuesday of each month.
“Once again we were excluded from the system,” said Pia Covre, a former sex worker and one of the founders of the Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes (henceforth, Comitato), which promotes the legal recognition and decriminalisation of sex work in Italy.
This statement from our colleague was the starting point of the Italian campaign “Nessuna da sola” or “No One Left Behind”. One of our eight Voice and Participation project partners, Comitato, initiated grassroot activism in Italy against the exclusionary policy of the government that left sex workers out of state support during the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign crowdfunded 30,000 Euros to support them.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a litmus test for existing racism and discriminatory practices. A research report from the United Kingdom showed that, ‘according to U.K. police data there was a rise of 300% in hate crimes towards ESEA people in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019’.[1] However, this number tells us only a fraction of the larger picture of structural racism.
In this article, we discuss how the movement against racially motivated hate crime[2] started in the UK, the role of ESEA organisations in sustaining it, and aligning issues and activisms within the movement. We highlight the role of our UK partner Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC) within this movement.
Following are the profiles of the eight organisations who are part of this learning journey along with an excerpt of their proposed project for 2023:
MAP Foundation, Thailand, established in 1996 works with the mission to empower migrant workers from Burma and their communities to take action to claim their rights and to fight discrimination against migrant workers.
With their project titled Solidarity Soap, MAP aims to build solidarity and grow its membership of migrant domestic workers through small enterprise capacity building and advocacy. They are upscaling a solution that emerged amongst this group during the initial impact of COVID. As people in this group lost their jobs and fell into debt, daily expenses became a burden. They sought to find a way to assist each other during the hard times. They exchanged information via Line (social media app) on job opportunities, and then decided they wanted to do something to reduce their cost of living. The idea came up with the need to reduce daily expenses like dishwashing detergent and clothes-washing detergent. They started making their own using basic ingredients and filling recycled bottles. They began distributing it to other members and felt that it was an enterprise they wanted to continue as part of this learning journey.
The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), Hong Kong, established in 1984, is a regional center committed to supporting the migrant movement through advocacy, organising, and building linkages for the advancement of migrants’ rights, with a mission to build and enhance the grassroots community movement of women migrants.
This project titled ‘Amplifying Voice of Migrants in Japan for Empowerment, Service and Action’ was conceived as APMM’s role in movement-building. The project primarily works with Filipino and other migrant workers in Japan, to ensure gender equality. During the project implementation, migrant organisations Kafin Migrant Center (KMC) and Migrante Japan will be involved and help shape the activities. This project was inspired by APMM’s experience of thriving movement-building among migrants in the last three years, by utilising new and digital technology and employing different strategies to continue the education, campaigning and organising work.
Serve the People Association (SPA), Taiwan, was founded by people concerned for workers, including labor advocates, scholars, lawyers, businessmen, workers and union officers in 2008. SPA offers free services to workers, including legal consultation, mediation of labor disputes, and assistance to unionise.
This project titled Migrant YouTubers, Migrant Podcasters is focused on deepening SPA’s understanding of recording videos, live broadcasts, and podcasts, and also different platforms that we can disseminate the programs. The managers and officers of the two unions-the National Domestic Workers Union (NDWU) and the Factory Workers Association Taiwan (FWAT) have made some live ‘know your rights’ broadcasts on Facebook with the help of SPA and they want to reach a wider audience using different social media mediums.
Tenaganita, Malaysia is a human rights organisation dedicated to assisting, building, advocating, and protecting migrants, refugees, women, and children from exploitation, abuse, discrimination, slavery, and human trafficking. We have offices and women’s shelters in the state of Selangor (Petaling Jaya) and Pulau Pinang (Penang).
This project titled ‘Support Services Program for Survivors of Human Trafficking in Selangor and Penang’ is designed for victims/survivors. They requested more structured skill programs to enable them to gain skills and training while in the shelter. Acquired skills can be applied when they go back to their communities upon their repatriation. This also includes self-care sessions for them to help ease the ongoing trauma and stress.
Project Partners
Following are the profiles of the eight organisations who are part of this learning journey along with an excerpt of their proposed project for 2023:
MAP Foundation, Thailand, established in 1996 works with the mission to empower migrant workers from Burma and their communities to take action to claim their rights and to fight discrimination against migrant workers.
With their project titled Solidarity Soap, MAP aims to build solidarity and grow its membership of migrant domestic workers through small enterprise capacity building and advocacy. They are upscaling a solution that emerged amongst this group during the initial impact of COVID. As people in this group were losing their jobs and falling into debt, daily expenses became a burden. They sought to find a way to assist each other during the hard times. They exchanged information via Line (social media app) on job opportunities, and then decided they wanted to do something to reduce their cost of living. The idea came up with the need to reduce daily expenses like dishwashing detergent and clothes-washing detergent. They started making their own using basic ingredients and filling recycled bottles. They began distributing it to other members and felt that it was an enterprise they wanted to continue as part of this learning journey.
The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), Hong Kong, established in 1984, is a regional center committed to supporting the migrant movement through advocacy, organising, and building linkages for the advancement of migrants’ rights, with a mission to build and enhance the grassroots community movement of women migrants.
This project titled ‘Amplifying Voice of Migrants in Japan for Empowerment, Service and Action’ was conceived as APMM’s role in movement-building. The project primarily works with Filipino and other migrant workers in Japan, to ensure gender equality. In the course of the project implementation, migrant organisations Kafin Migrant Center (KMC) and Migrante Japan will be involved and help shape the activities. This project was inspired by APMM’s experience of thriving movement-building among migrants in last three years, by utilising new and digital technology and employing different strategies to continue the education, campaigning and organising work.
Serve the People Association (SPA), Taiwan, was founded by people concerned for workers, including labor advocates, scholars, lawyers, businessmen, workers and union officers in 2008. SPA offers free services to workers, including legal consultation, mediation of labor disputes, and assistance to unionise.
This project titled Migrant YouTubers, Migrant Podcasters is focused on deepening SPA’s understanding of recording videos, live broadcasts, and podcasts, and also different platforms that we can disseminate the programs. The managers and officers of the two unions-the National Domestic Workers Union (NDWU) and the Factory Workers Association Taiwan (FWAT) have made some live ‘know your rights’ broadcasts on Facebook with the help of SPA and they want to reach a wider audience using different social media mediums.
Tenaganita, Malaysia is a human rights organisation dedicated to assisting, building, advocating, and protecting migrants, refugees, women, and children from exploitation, abuse, discrimination, slavery, and human trafficking. We have offices and women’s shelters in the state of Selangor (Petaling Jaya) and Pulau Pinang (Penang).
This project titled ‘Support Services Program for Survivors of Human Trafficking in Selangor and Penang’ is designed for victims/survivors. They requested more structured skill programs to enable them to gain skills and training while they are in the shelter that can be applied when are reintegrating upon their repatriation. This also includes self-care sessions for them to help ease the ongoing trauma and stress.
Comitato or The Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes onlus (CDCP ApS), Italy, founded in 1983, works with the main goal of advocating for the recognition of the human, social and labour rights of sex workers at a local, national, and international scale.
In the project titled Still I Rise - SIR, Comitato plans to apply its long-standing expertise in training project beneficiaries to become peers or linguistic and cultural mediators. This will be a tailor-made training course for one or two persons as concrete examples for other survivors who face the negative impact of stringent immigration legislation and the non-recognition of their human rights. The training will provide them with knowledge of the Italian labour market, legislation on immigration, and work as social operators. It will attend to suggestions made by the survivors themselves on how to approach migrant communities and engage with them on different issues.
Intervention and Sensitization against Trafficking Mission (MIST), France, established in 2020 is a community-based organization in France, created by a group of survivors of Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) who mobilize themselves to combat human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation through a participative approach.
This project titled ‘Empowering survivors in social work against THB: Focus on Ethics and Advocacy’ is an extension of MIST’s previous project “Empowering survivors in social work against THB” in 2022. Active members of MIST benefited from the community organizing training by a French organization called “Organisez-vous”. As a result of this training, they gathered into a group they called “Roots” and created the MIST rules and regulation booklet. In 2023, MIST will support “Roots” with a capacity-building process focused on ethics and advocacy. This group becomes the Ethic Council of Mist to define the internal process for active members, delegates, and spokesperson to help them to achieve their mission of peace-making (with delegates) and advocacy (with spokespersons) in a genuinely participatory way.
Melissa: Network of Migrant Women, Greece, founded in 2014 is a network for migrant and refugee women in Greece promoting their empowerment, integration into Greek society, and active citizenship.
This project titled ‘Transformational Leadership Training for women leaders from diverse origin’ was chosen to emphasise migrant and refugee women’s innate vast potential for leadership, too often unrecognized and untapped. This project acknowledges migrant women with experience in a leadership role and engages them in all its levels and phases, such as in planning and implementation of a leadership integration pathway program. This approach will enhance and strengthen their leadership skills, drawing from their own interaction and exchange, per their own request and desire to support each other and grow together, rather than through an external theoretical expert in a specialized, yet restricted, field.
Southeast and East Asian Centre, United Kingdom, registered in 2020, is a community organisation for and by migrants, refugees, and people seeking asylum from East and Southeast Asia (ESEA) and people of these heritages living in the UK.
The project titled ‘Voice and Participation of Vietnamese Migrants: Lived experiences of migration, “everyday borders”, doing and seeking work in the UK’ will involve employability skills training, rights informing workshops, and other advocacy and campaign activities. This is based on SEEAC’s previously conducted sharing and training on employment rights information with the community of Vietnamese Migrants. This has been developed in consultation with their partner organisation, Nails Viet Association (NVA), who have shared that the coverage of the mainstream media and the treatment from the law enforcement and the immigration authorities caused a public backlash against the Vietnamese beauty industry that damaged the community and their businesses.
Timeline of Activities (2022-2023)
Europe
Partners in Europe and Year of Inception
Following are the profiles of the eight organisations who are part of this learning journey along with an excerpt of their proposed project for 2023:
Comitato or The Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes onlus (CDCP ApS), Italy, founded in 1983, works with the main goal of advocating for the recognition of the human, social and labour rights of sex workers at a local, national, and international scale.
In the project titled Still I Rise - SIR, Comitato plans to apply its long-standing expertise in training project beneficiaries to become peers or linguistic and cultural mediators. This will be a tailor-made training course for one or two people as concrete examples for other survivors who face the negative impact of stringent immigration legislation and the non-recognition of their human rights. The training will provide them with knowledge of the Italian labour market, legislation on immigration, and work as social operators. It will attend to suggestions made by the survivors themselves on how to approach migrant communities and engage with them on different issues.
Intervention and Sensitization against Trafficking Mission (MIST), France, established in 2020 is a community-based organization in France, created by a group of survivors of Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) who mobilize themselves to combat human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation through a participative approach.
This project titled ‘Empowering survivors in social work against THB: Focus on Ethics and Advocacy’ is an extension of MIST’s previous project “Empowering survivors in social work against THB” in 2022. Active members of MIST benefited from the community organizing training by a French organization called “Organisez-vous”. As a result of this training, they gathered into a group they called “Roots” and created the MIST rules and regulation booklet. In 2023, MIST will support “Roots” with a capacity-building process focused on ethics and advocacy. This group becomes the Ethic Council of Mist to define the internal process for active members, delegates, and spokesperson to help them to achieve their mission of peace-making (with delegates) and advocacy (with spokespersons) in a genuinely participatory way.
Melissa: Network of Migrant Women, Greece, founded in 2014 is a network for migrant and refugee women in Greece promoting their empowerment, integration into Greek society, and active citizenship.
This project titled ‘Transformational Leadership Training for women leaders from diverse origin’ was chosen to emphasise migrant and refugee women’s innate vast potential for leadership, too often unrecognized and untapped. This project acknowledges migrant women with experience in a leadership role and engages them in all its levels and phases, such as in planning and implementation of a leadership integration pathway program. This approach will enhance and strengthen their leadership skills, drawing from their own interaction and exchange, per their own request and desire to support each other and grow together, rather than through an external theoretical expert in a specialized, yet restricted, field.
Southeast and East Asian Centre, United Kingdom, registered in 2020, is a community organisation for and by migrants, refugees, and people seeking asylum from East and Southeast Asia (ESEA) and people of these heritages living in the UK.
The project titled ‘Voice and Participation of Vietnamese Migrants: Lived experiences of migration, “everyday borders”, doing and seeking work in the UK’ will involve employability skills training, rights informing workshops, and other advocacy and campaign activities. This is based on SEEAC’s previously conducted sharing and training on employment rights information with the community of Vietnamese Migrants. This has been developed in consultation with their partner organisation, Nails Viet Association (NVA), who have shared that the coverage of the mainstream media and the treatment from the law enforcement and the immigration authorities caused a public backlash against the Vietnamese beauty industry that damaged the community and their businesses.
“Once again we were excluded from the system,”
