On 04 November 2009, grassroots migrants associations, service providers, trade unions, including migrants advocates from the academe held a dialogue and strategy meeting in Athens, Greece. It positively came out with a communiqué that laid down things that the participants would work together on in support for the recognition of domestic work as work, specifically in pushing through with the proposed ILO Convention for domestic workers.

Participants came from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Canada, US and Senegal representi ng the AMURA, BOMSA (Bangladesh), Confederation Nationale des Travailleurs du Senegal (CNTS), Filipino Migrant Workers Union, GAATW, International Migrants Alliance (IMA), IMA Research Foundation (Bangladesh), IWC (Canada), Indiana University, Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC), May First Movement in the Philippines (KMU), MWR-Canada, NAFCON, OKUP, Philippine Forum-NY-USA, USA PINAY, TENAGANITA, Thai Regional Alliance, Trans-Asia Sisters Association Taiwan (TASAT).

The activity was initiated and hosted by the CARAM-ASIA, Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development (APWLD) and the Asia Pacifi c Mission for Migrants (APMM) who are regional members of the United for Foreign Domestic Workers Rights (UFDWR). UFDWR is a network that pioneered the recognition of domestic work as work campaign that includes the one-day-paid-off per week. UFDWR also collaborated and published the Saya Migran, a comic hand-out popularizing the campaign for migrants to know their basic rights. The Mission for Migrant Workers is part of the UFDWR.

You can find the communique of the said dialogue and strategy meeting at the website of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants at the http://apmigrants.org.

http://www.apmigrants.org/publications/other_pub/MFOCUS%20Dec2009.pdf