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Beyond Advocacy to Advance Migrants’ Rights: A Conversation with Andy Hall
9 February, 2022 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
In this informal conversation on 9 February 2022 at 5.30pm, migration specialist Andy Hall will elaborate on various types of strategies that can be employed to advance migrants’ rights based on his experience. Now living in Nepal, Andy is now traveling through Thailand, where he is well known due to a now-dismissed court case for criminal defamation and computer crimes concerning his role in researching a report on migrant conditions in Thailand’s food export industry in 2016. He continues to promote ethical recruitment and better standards of living and working conditions for migrants across Asia and into the Middle East and Gulf. Asia.
In particular, the talk will highlight work with global agencies focusing on forced labor and custom law enforcement agencies (like the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to impose trade enforcement sanctions on companies that exploit and mistreat migrants.
Another employed strategy by migrants’ advocates is to bring strategic litigations against governments and private sector actors to put pressures on policies and companies to change. This, whilst working with global trade unions, NGOs, CBOs, migrant organizations, faith groups, academics and the media to build alliances and
In more recent years, and somewhat controversially, Hall has also taken to engage and work for investors and companies as advisor and consultant. Among others, in Thailand he is now Consultant/Migration Advisor at Charoen Pokphand Group – C.P. Group. This in the believe that while activists can apply pressure on companies to change corporate conduct to be better to migrants (as also can buyers, brands and enforcement officials). It’s the employers/companies themselves and their investors that need to change.
How he juggles between confrontational roles and working from within the system is challenging and raises important ethical issues that will be also addressed in the conversation and in the Q &A section.
Andy Hall ‘s biography
Andy Hall lived in Thailand from 2005 to 2016 after studying a PhD in corporate criminal responsibility in Australia and the UK. He became a migrant worker rights specialist working as a human rights defender and researcher to increase migrant worker access to rights, empowerment and remedies for exploitation in global supply chains. From 2009 to 2018, Andy was international affairs advisor to the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN) and a foreign migration expert at Mahidol University from 2011 to 2013, both in Thailand. During 2013, Andy acted as a migration advisor to the Myanmar government and Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration. Currently Andy lives in Nepal and works both as an advisor and consultant to companies, investors, civil society, trade unions and governments. Andy has recently developed ethical recruitment and migrant worker management programmes for a number of leading global companies with large numbers of migrant workers in their supply chains including Sime Derby Plantations (SDP) in Malaysia and Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) in Thailand. For more information see Hall’s page www.andyjhall.Wordpress.com and to read more about his recent work see the links below:
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/malaysias-migrant-labour-conundrum-conversation-andy-hall
https://thediplomat.com/2021/09/debt-bondage-payouts-flow-to-workers-in-malaysias-glove-industry/
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NB: Due to limited seats available, prior reservations are highly encouraged. Events are free, but donations are most welcome!
Organizer
SEA Junction
SEA Junction, established under the Thai non-profit organization Foundation for Southeast Asia Studies (ForSEA), aims to foster understanding and appreciation of Southeast Asia in all its socio-cultural dimensions, from arts and lifestyles to economy and development. Conveniently located at Room 408 of the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center or BACC (across MBK, BTS National Stadium), SEA Junction facilitates public access to knowledge resources and exchanges among students, practitioners and Southeast Asia lovers. For more information, see www.seajunction.org, join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/1693058870976440/ and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @seajunction
