Press Statement
26 April 2011
For reference: Dolores Balladares
�� � � �Chairperson, Tel. No.: 97472986
In the wake of nuclear plant meltdowns in Japan
Filipinos in HK join Global Day of Action to commemorate Chernobyl�s 25th year
As the world commemorates the 25th year of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster, the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK) joins the call of the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS) to ban nuclear reactor plants. This call is even more urgent now as the people of Japan as well as the whole world face the terrible prospect of another Chernobyl in the wake of the meltdowns at the Fukushima 1 nuclear complex.
Filipinos in Hong Kong grieve with the Japanese people gravely affected by the twin disasters � a massive earthquake and devastating tsunami � last month. Thousands died and billions of dollars worth of properties were buried and ruined.
But the aftershock of the disasters is not yet over. The threat of a nuclear calamity hangs over the heads of the people of Japan.
As migrant workers, Filipinos in Hong Kong are very much concerned with the events in Japan. The said country is host to hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from different countries, and the tragedy and its waves of effects to Japan�s social and economic condition have put the lives of migrants and their families in extreme insecurity.
But the threat of a nuclear plant devastation shall spell even greater disaster for the migrant workers in Japan and possibly even in nearby countries where the fallout will be felt. It will surely cost more lives and livelihoods.
Migrant workers have already been displaced by extreme poverty and unemployment in home countries. The likely nuclear plant disaster will displace migrants again that will put them in even worse situation than before.
To aggravate matters further, governments of migrant-sending countries are very much not ready to take the backlash of what may happen in the Fukushima 1 nuclear complex. Aside from the inability to respond quickly to the needs of their nationals in areas that will be affected, jobs are still very scarce in countries like the Philippines with the people�s economic condition sliding faster down to the rut.
Migrant workers and the people are the ones to face a tragic future if the Fukushima 1 situation worsens. Nuclear power technology is developed, promoted and controlled by imperialist powers � chiefly by the US � to fuel the need for profits of imperialist industries. Its benefit to the people only comes in trickles and is only used to prettify the clear dangers to the people as what has been proven in Chernobyl and other nuclear power plant disasters.
Twenty-five years after Chernobyl and still the lives, livelihood, health and safety of the people are still at risk due to imperialist domination and greed.
In this Global Day of Action, UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK calls for the world to remember Chernobyl. Remember and act to protest what is happening in Fukushima 1 nuclear complex, act to protect the lives of the people of Japan, and unite in opposing nuclear reactor plants in the world. Make safe the world from nuclear disasters and imperialist control!
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The Secretariat
United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK)
2/F., New Hall, St. John's Cathedral,
4 Garden Road, Central, Hong Kong SAR
Tel. (852) 3156-2447� �� Fax. (852) 2526-2894
E-mail: secretariat@unifil.org.hk
Website: http://www.unifil.org.hk
Blog: compatriots.blogspot.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/unifilhk
