The Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD), in partnership with The Heinrich Böll Foundation – Palestine and Jordan Office, held capacity-building training sessions for 30 migrant workers of different nationalities (Syrian, Sudanese, Egyptian, Somali, Yemeni, Tunisian, and Filipino) as part of the “Haquna” project.
The project aims to contribute to empowering, protecting, and promoting the rights of migrant workers by supporting them in establishing a “Migrant Workers Committee” that would help migrant workers of all nationalities speak in one voice and enhance coordination among them for civic participation in defending and advancing their rights.
The three-day training included legal awareness sessions focusing on the rights of migrant workers and their active civic participation, on how to advocate for issues they face, identify their needs and priorities, and the mechanism of their participation in the “Migrant Workers Committee” within the Migration and Refugee Forum for the Arab World (MARFA ), one of ARDD’s networks, in an effective and purposeful way, and came up with a number of initiatives that address the main issues they face and the mechanism for the implementation of these initiatives.
The participants launched four initiatives, namely the “Yad Al Oun” Helping Hand initiative, which focuses on the rights of migrant workers; the “Aman” Safety initiative that aims to contribute to ending bullying of immigrant children in schools; “My Right to Know”, which includes holding legal awareness sessions for migrant workers; “Hand in Hand”, which addresses issues like housing laws for migrant workers.
Abkar Abdullah, a migrant Somali worker who took part in the training, said: “The most detrimental thing to refugees and migrants is the lack of knowledge of the laws of the host society, as this lack of knowledge is exploited by some people for their personal interests. As such, workshops that raise awareness about local laws act as a protective shield against this kind of exploitation.”
The “Haquna” project is aligned with ARDD’s Human & Economic Development and Migration, Refugees & Shataat and access to justice programs and will be implemented in partnership with Heinrich Böll Foundation- Palestine & Jordan (HBS) in 2021. MARFA a regional platform dedicated to and focused on refugee and migration issues will also work on adopting and sustaining the project’s output, and on conveying the voices of migrant workers to decision-makers and stakeholders in the region and in their countries of origin, as well as on making their voices part of the global dialogue on the relevant United Nations conventions.
