Guatemala, Guatemala April 21, 2007
As a result of the positive feedback from the Ministry of Labor training described in the April 10 entry, the Ministry of Foreign Relations (MFR) requested Global Workers to repeat the training on the USA guest worker program for its senior staff. The Ministry plays a complementary and additional role in the protection of Guatemalan migrants. Due to diplomatic protocol, the Ministry of Labor must work through the Ministry of Foreign Relations in order to address any problems with a foreign state (e.g. asking the US consulate to cooperate to reduce problems with the guest worker program). Additionally, the MFR is in charge of ensuring the safety of Guatemalan citizens abroad. Therefore, the MFR is needed to not only address the abuses of the Guatemalan workers in the USA, but the foreign temporary labor programs in Guatemala as well. Needless to say, its plate is full.
As discussed during the training, a regional strategy may be the most effective. The guest worker abuses are the same in at least Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Although Global Workers does not have first hand knowledge, it can make an educated guess that the abuses (i.e. recruiters charging obscene amounts of money to go to the USA as a guest worker) occurs in every country in which the program operates. The Guatemalan government will likely have more success negotiating with the USA State Department about consulate cooperation if multiple countries act together. This week is the Regional Conference on Migration (Global Workers attended the meeting last year in El Salvador see May 5, 2006 entry) where Minister of Foreign Relations from North and Central American come together to discuss migration policies. Hopefully, this year the discussion will move beyond managed migration and into substantive migrant rights. Global Workers will continue to work closely with the Guatemalan government to support its effort to improve the lives of its migrants.