Long live the International Day of Migrants!

Fraternal message of solidarity form the Via Campesina to the migrants of the world – December 18, 2006
 
Migrant sisters and brothers:
La Via Campesina sends a fraternal greeting in solidarity with all the migrants of the world and to their organizations, with the motive of celebrating the International Day of the Migrants this 18th of December, 2006.
 
We remember with affection how, one year ago, in Hong Kong we marched together in opposition to neoliberalism, represented by the WTO and to demand the thorough respect of the right of migrants and their families.
This day, sisters and brothers, we reaffirm our commitment of complete support for your struggles for the respect of your rights, and against anti-migrant policies and actions on the part of governments, particularly from the governments from the north.
 
We support your struggle against the walls in Palestine, Melilla, and on the Border of the United States and Mexico, walls which currently constitute the most barbaric act of aggression in the present time against all peoples and particularly against migrants and their families.
 
Therefore we unconditionally support your struggle against the militarization of the borders, against laws which criminalize migrants for being migrants and against the deportation of migrants and their families.
 
We demand that the governments which have not done so ratify the International Convention for the Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families and that those who have ratified it fulfill the mandate of this convention.
 
Migrant sisters and brothers, La Via Campesina represents peasants, family farmers, indigenous peoples, women, agricultural migrant workers, fisher-folk and artesans all around the world who struggle against the very policies and models which are responsible for the increasing migration from the south to the north.
 
We maintain that the neoliberal model manifested in anti-peasant policies and free trade agreements have deepened migration, provoking the ruin of many rural communities in the south, consequently displacing thousands of human beings who can no longer survive on their land.  The impact has been devastating for rural and peasant communities.  It is expected that every hour, 30 men and 30 women abandon their families and their land in attempts to arrive to the North.
 
Because of the above, we reaffirm our commitment and decision to strengthen the struggle against this model and these policies that cause your suffering. We will continue to go forward together with you so that in the near future no one should need to abandon their families, their land and communities for reasons of oppression, injustice or exclusion.