Home 
MANILA, Philippines -- An Indonesian domestic helper-turned-migrants' rights advocates is in Manila to take part in a conference that will tackle the plight of migrant workers around the world.
Eni Lestari, chair of the International Migrants Rights Alliance, an alliance of 112 migrant grassroots organizations, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport around lunchtime Thursday where she was welcomed by Gabriela party-list representatives and Migrante International secretary-general Connie Bragas-Regalado.
The IMA will be holding the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees on October 28-30, to parallel the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development that the Philippines will be hosting.
“The IAMR will hear the voice of migrant workers from around the world who are suffering from exploitation and neglect by governments, businesses and recruiters. The GFMD is nothing but a forum of exploiters, which will only promote labor export policies,” Lestari told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) in a phone interview.
Lestari said the assembly would also discuss the effects of the ongoing global financial crisis on the jobs, welfare and earnings of migrant workers.
Lestari, who worked as a domestic worker in Hong Kong, founded Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia (ATKI or Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers) in October 2000 and became its chair.
She later became the spokesperson of the Asian Migrants' Coordinating Body, the biggest grassroots alliance in Hong Kong of migrant workers from Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
She was elected founding chair of the IMA in June 2008.
