Lumad Migrant Worker Amplifies Indigenous Voices at UN Business and Human Rights Forum

In one of the sessions during the UN Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum held on September 25, 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand, Lai Besaña, a Lumad migrant domestic worker in Hong Kong, delivered a speech highlighting the challenges faced by indigenous peoples, particularly those forced to migrate due to systemic oppression.

As a representative of the Filipino Migrant Workers' Union and Gabriela Hong Kong, she brought attention to issues of displacement, land grabbing, and the socio-economic struggles of her community, the Higaonon tribe from Northern Bukidnon, Philippines.

Besaña began by explaining how indigenous communities like hers face long-standing problems, including limited access to social services, land grabs, and militarization, which lead to displacement. Many, like her, are compelled to leave their homeland and seek work abroad, only to face further marginalization. As she shared her own experience as a domestic worker in Hong Kong she shed light on the exploitative conditions migrant workers often endure— long hours, low wages, and discrimination.

Amidst these difficulties, Besaña expressed gratitude for the Filipino indigenous networks in Hong Kong that provide solidarity and organize events like Cordillera Day and Tribal Filipino Sunday. These events celebrate Indigenous culture while demanding accountability from both home and host governments.

In her closing remarks, Besaña called for stronger international frameworks, policies, and legislation that protect the rights of migrant workers and indigenous peoples. She stressed that Indigenous migrants are worth more than the economic contributions they make through remittances and that their cultures, struggles, and voices deserve recognition. Her hope is to see these issues resolved so that she and others can one day return to their ancestral lands with dignity.

Please read her speech below and watch her video recorded presentation here.

Full speech:

Hi, I am Lai. I am an indigenous woman migrant worker. I am from Mindanao. I belong to the tribe called Higaonon tribe which is situated in the Northern part of Bukidnon. I am currently a migrant domestic worker here in Hong Kong.

As a Lumad, the issues of other communities are similar and common to other indigenous peoples communities like oppression. We are less fortunate compared to people based in cities or urban areas. We experience land grabbing, discrimination, and deprivation of our rights to self-determination. The access to basic social services is very limited. Some of my ancestors on my great-grandmother's side who live in the hinterlands are farmers who rely on their basic needs for the land they tilled. Due to the oppressive policies and inadequate support of our government in the agriculture sector especially to the farmers, many of them were forced to sell their farmlands or let the big plantations rent their land because they could not afford to finance the inputs in farming.

Some also are victims of massive displacement due to bombing and militarization in mountain areas that force them to move into the cities and become beggars specifically Christmas season because their land and their means of living have been destroyed.

That’s why many young women and men like myself are forced to go abroad and find work because I need to provide for my family. I experience discrimination and social exclusion because of my status as a migrant, my job as a domestic worker, and as a woman. I experience low wages, being 24 hours on call, and working more than 12 hours a day. While my employer is considerate, not many are. Some do not have rest days or migrant domestic workers have to work still before they leave for their rest day. Migrant domestic workers are exempted from labor standard laws and we have no pathway to citizenship or permanent residence. We do not have job security and we are subject to displacement. Sadly, host countries perceive changing employers as bad, tagging it as job hopping and we have received cases of domestic workers’ employment visas being denied.

As a Lumad migrant worker, I feel very strongly not only about my situation as a woman migrant domestic worker but also as a Lumad. I am happy that here in Hong Kong, there are existing organizations and networks of Filipino Indigenous people migrant workers who organize activities, festivals, and campaigns that highlight the beauty, life, and struggles of Indigenous peoples back home. We have Cordillera Day and Tribal Filipino Sunday, and when we know of issues back home like land-grabbing or when Lumad communities are in peril, we hold mass protests, conduct discussions, and inform our fellow migrant workers about this news.

As a Lumad migrant worker, I do not feel that my government provides enough information or even attention to the challenges we face as Indigenous peoples, as women, and as migrant workers. It will be important for governments to acknowledge the problems we face as indigenous peoples back home, why we become displaced or become beggars, why we feel inferior or why we campaign, speak up, and fight back. I feel sad and angry that some indigenous peoples in the Philippines are placed in lots of lands bought by rich families or corporations. I don’t think we are an endangered species or items inside a museum. No one owns the land, we are simply caretakers of the land. Even if we have left, the land remains there.

Indigenous migrant workers deserve attention as do every migrant worker. I think it will be good if we are able to practice and share our culture with fellow migrant workers, if our cultures are celebrated and our concerns listened to and acted upon, when there are days when we can share cultures with one another, but more importantly, when there are policies that protect our rights, allow us to speak freely about our issues both as migrant workers and as indigenous peoples, and we can demand both accountability from governments and companies.

As a Lumad, we are worth more than the woven clothes and beads we wear. As a migrant worker, we are worth more than the remittances we send or the economic contributions we make.

As a Lumad and migrant worker, I am determined to continue to seek justice and assert our long-standing issues in our land, life, and resources. And when all these issues are resolved, I look forward to coming back home to our ancestral land together with my mother and my family.