[DECLARATION] “Migrants and Workers Unite: End Fascism, Modern Slavery and Oppression!”
Declaration of the IMA Asia Pacific Conference on Migration, Modern Slavery and Workers’ Solidarity
Bangkok, Thailand | 9-10 August 2026
We, the participants of the IMA Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Migration, Modern Slavery and Workers’ Solidarity, representing a total of 33 grassroots migrant organizations, unions, women’s organizations and migrant advocates from 16 countries and country regions unite on our central declaration.
We are workers, we are not slaves.
Hundreds of millions of workers are forced to migrate due to poverty and displacement, the aftermath of economic and political ruin caused by the imposition of decades of neoliberal economic restructuring on the economies of the Global South. Migrant workers face a labor market designed to make them disposable, despite their essential role in running the economy of receiving countries, and invaluable contribution to their sending country.
The systematic design of labor migration excludes migrant workers from the fundamental labor rights in the host countries, creating a vulnerable, lower tier of workers. Migrant workers are in precarious employment, receive lower wages despite performing the same work, not covered by existing social protection and other core labor standards. Migrant workers are forced to endure slave-like working conditions in order to earn an income for their families.
The existing migration regime benefits only a few. Governments, recruitment agencies, and criminal gangs of the sending countries profits from the migrant workers. Corporations, capitalists and governments of the receiving countries profits from the migrant workers.
We seek to end modern-day slavery
We will build, organize and expand grassroots mass movements, dedicated in ending modern-day slavery
We will conduct political education, rigorous and exhaustive research, and organize study groups to arm all workers with the knowledge and critical consciousness needed to lead this struggle
We will foster international solidarity, solidarity across different sectors, forge cooperation between migrant organizations, workers organizations, trade unions and other social movements
“Thousands of years it took to break the chains of slavery. Ending modern-day slavery, we declare, not a day more.”
