UITBB message for International Migrants Day 2025
On December 18, as we end another year marked by poverty, wars, environmental damage, and suffering, we observe International Migrants Day.
UITBB wants to remind everyone of an important truth: no one chooses to become a migrant or a refugee. People are forced to leave their homes because of capitalist policies, neoliberal rules, and wars started by powerful countries. No man, woman, or child wants to risk their life crossing dangerous seas or difficult land routes — they do it only because they must in order to survive.
When migrants finally arrive, many employers exploit them, and governments often ignore what is happening. Laws prevent them from having the same work rights and benefits as local workers. This creates racism, fear of foreigners, and helps far-right groups grow. At the same time, efforts are made to stop migrants from joining trade unions.
This is a class issue, and it needs a class-based solution. UITBB calls on progressive trade unions to help migrants settle into their new communities and join the common struggle for workers’ rights. We show full solidarity with all displaced people — especially migrant workers in construction — and we ask our members to support them and stand against right-wing forces that try to divide the working class.
UITBB stresses that the working class is one, no matter a person’s skin colour, religion, language, or country of origin. For this reason, we ask our members to organise events on December 18 to mark International Migrants Day and to promote unity and inclusion in the global labour movement.