“I believe that immigration and the rights of migrant workers will become the issue of the next decade, just as civil rights were the issue of the 1960’s,” Doromal said.
She said human rights and social justice are not achieved merely through a declaration or legislation.
It will be achieved through changing people’s hearts, through speaking out, and through education, she said.
“I have had the privilege and honor of defending the human rights of the foreign contract workers for almost two decades from the halls of the U.S. Congress to foreign embassies; from offices of Philippine and U.S. cabinet members to the Congress in the Philippines; from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights to offices of national and international non-governmental agencies,” the former Rota teacher said.
Doromal, who is now based in Florida, said “progress has been made, but the cause will continue until all abuses end, and until justice, political and social rights and a pathway to citizenship is granted to long-term guest workers.”
She said she will continue reporting, preparing testimony, and speaking out for justice and political rights.
She is encouraging foreign workers to do the same.
According to Doromal, “Guest worker programs, whether run by local or federal governments, tend to be self-serving and lend themselves to exploitation and abuses.”
Whenever financial gain and greed are the primary motivation, rights will be trampled, she said.
“Whenever people are allowed to be treated as indentured servants and replaceable commodities, rights will be ignored,” she added. “Whenever a government allows the systematic cheating of thousands of workers by refusing to enforce their own policies and laws, and making excuses for not ensuring that all workers gets every penny owed to them, rights will be non-existent.”
She added that an exclusive society that disenfranchises a major portion of the population from political and social rights will not prosper politically, socially, morally or economically.
