Migration is a human right. Migration needs to be seen as human mobility that impacts individuals and families, as well as the communities and families that they leave behind. According to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, migration is often the cause of serious problems for the members of the families of migrant workers as well as for the workers themselves, in particular, because of the scattering of the family.

 

In any country, Black Women, Girls, and non-binary people are extremely vulnerable to abuse, and when you add to that being a Black Migrant Woman, is many times void of most rights afforded to their documented counterparts. 

 

AfroResistance would like to put a spotlight on the fact that Black migration is grounded in a collective practice that has not been widely documented and thus invisibilized through history, and this invisibilization results in vulnerability, violence, and inhumane treatment along with all phases of an individual, families or community migration.  For example, Black Colombians Migrants in Ecuador report high levels of discrimination, and nearly two out of five had been victims of a crime within the past year.  Black migrants throughout the Americas, including the United States, continuously share having little to no hope in governmental institutions that have the mandate to protect them, and many keep a low profile all together to avoid being treated with disrespect, disgust and/or to prevent being emotionally, physically and/or sexually harmed.

 

As we are living with a global human rights crisis, Covid-19,  Black Migrants in the region, have had their mobility limited due to many international borders reducing their operations, and many migrants, from as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola, to Haiti, Cuba and Brazil are now stuck in between borders throughout the region, living in precarious conditions and without access to basic health needs or care. Out of these migrants, many are Black Women and their children

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Some of the most timely demands that Afroresistance has is that:

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• All states sign and ratify the Convention on the Elimination and Racial Discrimination, Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families, and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, three conventions that together will further protect all Black Migrants including Migrant Black Women and Girls.

• That health care, housing, employment, and educational resources, especially during this global health pandemic available to documented people, be also available to Black Migrants regardless of documentation status of income level.

• That there be a 100% release of detained Black Migrants from detention centers. 

• The immediate halt of deportations of undocumented people.

• International and domestic human rights, and immigrant rights organizations to center, advocate and organize for Black Migrants in all capacities.