Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB)

A founding member of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) and with members from Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand
c/o APMM, No. 2 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR Tel no(s): (852) 3156-2447, 2723-7536 Fax no(s): 2735-4559 E-mail: amcb.hk@gmail.com

13 November 2013 Dear Friends and Advocates, !! Greetings of human rights and justice! " On December 3 to 6, worlds leaders shall convene for the 9th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Meeting in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting is set to discuss a new round of negotiations on trade in almost all aspects amidst the raging crises food, climate, economic, finance that the world is experiencing right now. !!() ! !! The WTO is preparing to abandon the Doha Development Agenda it came up with more than a decade ago. This time, three main themes shall be discussed namely: agriculture, issues of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and on trade facilitation. Alongside these discussions, other agreements that are being negotiated parallel to the WTO are also expected to be discussed including the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) that will have impacts on health, education, public utilities and even migration. !# !!! Since its establishment, agreements and negotiations in the WTO have impacted migration and migrant workers. !!! In our country of origin, the negotiations on agriculture, trade and services have caused displacement, widening inequities, unemployment and poverty. The WTO has eroded the economies of countries and has greatly decreased the capacity of our countries to implement equitable and sustainable development. This maintains the condition for millions to be forced to migrate overseas and for labour export programs to continue. !!! !! ! Meanwhile in countries where we work, migrant workers are made to supply the cheap, skilled and docile labour needed by industries. We are socially and economically excluded and our contributions to the society are not recognized. !! In this regard, the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB) has agreed to join the peoples actions to be mounted by many civil society organizations (CSOs) parallel to the Bali WTO meeting. We shall be joining the Peoples Global Camp that is being organized by many international, regional and Indonesian organizations and trade

unions. !!! ! However, being a grassroots organization, the AMCB do not have the resources to support our delegation. While many of our leaders are ready to shell out resources from their own income, we are afraid that these are still short to support the cost of participation estimated at HK$7,000 per person (inclusive of airfare, accommodation, food and registration to the PGC). !! ! We are thus approaching your organization to solicit for contributions. Any amount that you can give will help out the AMCB in our objective to send some of our leaders and members to the peoples actions in Bali. !! We hope for your positive reply to this request. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions. Thank you very much. ! In solidarity

Ganika Diristiani AMCB Spokesperson Tel. No.: 97124641