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Momodou
Denmark
11732 Posts |
 Posted - 08 Dec 2006 : 14:49:31
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Government Urged To Value Migrant Women
By Amie Sanneh
The State of the World Population Report 2006, which was launched last week, focuses on Women and International Migrant and indicating that women migrants form up to half of all International migrants worldwide. "It is a call for greater cooperation by governments to ensure a win-win situation for all," says Fadzai Gwaradzimba, the UNDP Representative in The Gambia when delivering a statement on behalf of the UNFPA Representative.
The UNDP Representative said the 2006 population report call on governments and individuals to recognize and value the contributions of migrant women and promote and respect their human rights.
She stressed the need for stronger cooperation between countries to make migration safer and fairer. "And there is a dire need for greater action to add the lack of opportunities and the human rights violations that led many women to migrate in the first place," she said.
Mrs. Gwarazimba said of the world's 191 million international migrants, 95 million are women. She revealed that women often work behind the scenes and their work goes largely unrecognised. She said that the 2006 report shows that women migrants, contribute a great deal to the families and communities in their host countries and back home. "Yet despite their huge numbers and substantial contributions to both families and countries abroad and back home, women migrants are too often ignored, disenfranchised and abused," she added.
The UNDP Representative highlighted the background women migrants came from. She said they are domestic workers, caretakers of the sick children and elderly farm labourers, sex workers etc. Mrs. Gwarazimba revealed that human trafficking today is the third most lucrative illicit business in the world after arms and drug trafficking.
"As you know, this is very closely tied to sexual exploitation and abuse, and many victims are forced into sex work against their will and held as virtual sex slave," she said.
The UNDP Representative contended that The Gambia has its own share of International Migration and its effect, like many other countries in the sub-region. She, however, said the unstable situation of the surrounding countries adds to the already significant migrant population of the country, which constitutes 7.7% according to the 2003 census.
"It is in recognition of this that UNFPA supports the formulation of a comprehensive Migration Policy preparations of which have already begun", she said, and added that the UNFPA also supported the Department of Immigration with data processing equipment and supplies to enhance the availability of reliable data on the flow of migrants.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No.109/2006, 6-7 December, 2006
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