Archivos: Press

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Widespread Human Rights Abuses Under Temporary 
Worker Programs

Washington, D.C. (March 12, 2013) – As Congress debates proposals for comprehensive immigration reform, temporary workers in the U.S. under the current H-2A and H-2B temporary worker programs are suffering widespread recruitment abuses, which can lead to debt servitude and human trafficking. These abuses and the systemic problems associated with the H-2A and H-2B visa programs will be highlighted by Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM), the Transnational Legal Clinic of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the AFL-CIO, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Fundar at the hearing, entitled, “Human Rights and Hiring Practices Under the H-2 Program in the United States.” The hearing will take place before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on March 12, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Approximately 100,000 migrant workers from around the world are recruited to work in low-wage jobs in the U.S. each year. The vast majority of these workers are from Mexico. U.S. employers and international labor recruiters hire migrant workers to fill these positions in agriculture, forestry, construction and other such industries on a temporary basis through the H-2 programs. Workers are often brought to the U.S. through employers and recruiters who misrepresent the terms of their employment and extract exorbitant recruitment fees with virtual impunity. As a result, workers are often trapped in a system of involuntary servitude or forced labor. Inadequate enforcement and oversight of the minimal existing legal protections result in serious human rights violations.

“The U.S. must monitor and bring transparency and accountability to the H-2 recruitment process in order to comply with international human rights law,” said Rachel Micah-Jones, Executive Director of CDM.

CDM and its partners will recommend that the U.S. government hold employers accountable for illegal recruitment practices and ensure greater transparency in the international recruitment process. In addition, CDM will recommend increasing cooperative efforts with migrant advocacy organizations and other OAS Member States to effectively protect the rights of migrant workers under the American Declaration.

The hearing will take place from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on March 12 in the OAS’s Padilha Vidal Room, which is located at 1889 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. The hearing is on the record and open to media and the public.

Contact:
Rachel Micah-Jones
Executive Director
Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc.
rachel@cdmigrante.org
Tel: 410-783-0236

PARA SU PUBLICACION INMEDIATA

Abuso Endémico de Derechos Humanos Bajo los Programas de Trabajo Temporal

Washington, D.C. (12 de marzo, 2013) – Mientras que en el Congreso se debaten propuestas para la reforma migratoria, los trabajadores temporales en los E.E.U.U. sufren abusos endémicos durante el reclutamiento los cuales pueden resultar en servidumbre por deudas y trata de personas, bajo los actuales programas de trabajadores temporales H-2. Estos abusos y los problemas sistémicos asociados con los programas de visa H-2A y H-2B serán resaltados por el Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM), la Clínica Legal Transnacional de la Universidad de Pennsylvania, el AFL-CIO, Southern Poverty Law Center, y Fundar en la audiencia titulada “Derechos Humanos y Practicas de Contratación Bajo el Programa H-2 en los Estados Unidos.” La audiencia se llevara a cabo ante la Comisión Inter-Americana de Derechos Humanos el 12 de marzo del 2013 en Washington, D.C.

Aproximadamente 100,000 trabajadores migrantes de todas partes del mundo son contratados para trabajar en empleos de bajos ingresos en los E.E.U.U. cada año. La gran mayoría de estos trabajadores son de México. Patrones estadounidenses y reclutadores de trabajadores internacionales contratan a trabajadores temporales para llenar estas vacantes en la agricultura, la siembra de arboles, la construcción y otras industrias semejantes de forma temporal a través de los programas H-2. A menudo, estos trabajadores son traídos a los E.E.U.U. por medio de contratistas y reclutadores quienes distorsionan los términos de su empleo y extraen cuotas muy altas con virtual impunidad. Como resultado, seguido los trabajadores son atrapados en un sistema de esclavitud o trabajo forzado. La aplicación y supervisión inadecuada de las mínimas protecciones legales que existen resultan en violaciones graves a los derechos humanos.

“Los Estados Unidos debe monitorear y asegurar la transparencia y la rendición de cuentas en el proceso de reclutamiento H-2 para cumplir con las leyes internacionales de derechos humanos,” dijo Rachel Micah-Jones, Directora Ejecutiva del CDM.
El CDM y sus socios recomendarán que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos responsabilice a empleadores por sus practicas ilegales de reclutamiento y que asegure una transparencia mas amplia en el proceso de reclutamiento internacional. Además, el CDM recomendará que se incrementen los esfuerzos cooperativos con organizaciones que inciden en temas migratorios y otros estados miembros de la OEA para proteger los derechos de trabajadores migrantes de manera efectiva bajo la Declaración Americana.

La audiencia se llevara a cabo de 11:30 am a 12:30 pm el 12 de marzo en el Salón Padilha Vidal de la OEA, el cual se encuentra en 1889 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. La audiencia será documentada en el archivo y esta abierta a los medios y al publico.

Contacto:
Rachel Micah-Jones
Directora Ejecutiva
Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc.
Rachel@cdmigrante.org
Tel: 410-783-0236

Press Release – Report Uncovers Significant Abuses of Migrant Workers in the U.S. Fair and Carnival Industry and Advances Comprehensive Recommendations.pdf

January 17, 2013

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Rachel Micah-Jones, Executive Director
Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc.
rachel@cdmigrante.org
410-783-0236

Study Highlights Abuses in the Recruitment of Migrant Workers Employed Under the H-2 Temporary Worker Program and Recommends Change

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Over 100,000 temporary workers are recruited abroad for employment in the United States each year under the H-2 temporary worker program.  Policymakers view the U.S. guestworker programs, including the H-2 temporary worker program, as a central component of immigration reform in 2013.  Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM) released a report today, Recruitment Revealed:  Fundamental Flaws in the H-2 Temporary Worker Program and Recommendations for Change, which exposes substantial defects in the current H-2 program’s recruitment systems and proposes changes that will prevent worker exploitation and abuse.

The report explains that many temporary workers are routinely subjected to fraud, charged illegal fees, and threatened, intimidated, and mistreated by recruiters and employers. “Temporary workers are important participants in the U.S. economy and deserve to be treated with dignity,” said Rachel Micah-Jones, CDM’s Executive Director.  “By maintaining or expanding the H-2 worker visa programs as they currently operate, the U.S. will continue to place temporary workers and their families at risk for exploitation.”

The report is the result of an intensive, multi-source investigative study that involved over 220 lengthy interviews with workers, requests pursuant to governmental transparency laws in the U.S. and Mexico, and institutional surveys.  H-2 workers are employed in industries such as agriculture, landscaping, forestry and hospitality.  Until now, little has been understood about the conditions under which migrant workers are recruited for these jobs.  To increase transparency in recruitment, an interactive online tool is being launched along with the report.  This tool details abuses uncovered through the study and allows the public to report recruitment abuses online.

Support for the study, report and interactive online tool was provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Solidarity Center.  The study was conducted to gain deeper insight into the experiences of H-2 temporary workers during their recruitment in Mexico and employment in the United States.

New DOL Rules Promote Fairness In the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Temporary Workers

Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., Migrant Worker Leaders Applaud US Department of Labor’s Stance against Recruitment Abuse for H-2B workers

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, February 20, 2012—Today, the US Department of Labor (DOL) published new rules for the H-2B non-agricultural guestworker visa program to protect migrants abroad and job-seekers in the United States.

Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM) and migrant worker leaders from the Comité de Defensa del Migrante (Migrant Workers’ Defense Committee) applaud the DOL for taking a stand against recruitment and employment abuses. These abuses were detailed in Picked Apart: The Hidden Struggles Of Migrant Worker Women In The Maryland Crab Industry, a report co-authored by CDM and American University Washington College of Law.

Protections in the new rule for H-2B migrant workers include:

• Job Contract. Employers must provide a copy of the job order to each H-2B worker in a language the worker understands no later than when the worker applies for the visa. Workers often rely on false promises about the pay and work conditions in deciding to go to the U.S. This will help prevent fraud and misinformation.
• Contractual Prohibition on International Labor Recruitment Fees. In their contracts with recruiters, employers must specifically prohibit recruiters from charging international labor recruitment fees.  This will help prevent workers from going into debt, just to get a job.
• Three-Fourths Guarantee. To prevent over-recruitment and the benching of workers, employers of H-2B workers will be required to pay them at least three-quarters of the hours promised in the work contracts for each 12-week period (and for workers with contracts that are shorter than 120 days, each 6-week period).  In the past, workers have been brought to the U.S. and then given little or no work, while paying high costs for housing and food.
• Prohibition on Retaliation. H-2B employers are prohibited from retaliating against workers for filing or instituting complaints, providing testimony, consulting with workers’ center or lawyers, and exercising or asserting, on behalf of himself/herself or others, any right or protection.
• Reimbursements for Visa and Travel Fees. Employers must pay or reimburse workers for the full amount of inbound travel and subsistence after a worker completes 50 percent of the employment contract. Employers must also provide outbound transportation and subsistence for migrants who work until the end of the job order or who are dismissed for any reason before the end of the job order.
• Improved Transparency in International Labor Recruitment. Employers must provide DOL with a copy of all agreements with any agent or recruiter with whom they engage or plan to engage in recruiting H-2B workers.

“With enforcement, the new protections in the H-2B rule will reduce many of the serious recruitment and workplace abuses in the H-2B program,” said Rachel Micah-Jones, the CDM’s Founder and Executive Director. “This rule is an important victory for workers.”

Elisa Tovar Martinez, a former H-2B worker in Maryland’s crab industry featured in the Picked Apart report and migrant worker leader of the Comité de Defensa del Migrante (Migrant Workers’ Defense Committee), said, “I am very pleased that we are realizing the fruits of the work that we have done as the Comité de Defensa del Migrante with CDM and other organizations to benefit migrant workers. Just conditions are what we seek.”

The new rule will be effective on April 23, 2012. For more information about the H-2B program, see the National Employment Law Project’s “Fact Sheet: H-2B Guestworker Program and New Labor Department Rules to Protect U.S. and Foreign Workers.”

Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. is a transnational 501(c)(3) non-profit migrant rights organization with offices in Mexico City, Mexico, Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca and Baltimore, Maryland. The Comité de Defensa del Migrante (Migrant Workers’ Defense Committee) is a group of community-based leaders who organize and empower migrant workers to defend themselves and educate their co-workers.