Regional meeting to promote the lawful foreign employment, building relations between the Trade Unions at the countries of Origin and Destination and experience sharing of Migrant Recruitment Advisor (MRA)

The meeting allowed trade unions and alliance partners to discuss and agree on key demands for actions and policies related to migrant workers rights including fair recruitment its monitoring and labour mobility. These key demands will be strengthened by the web-based evidence collected from migrant workers’ input on their recruitment practice to the Migrant Recruitment Advisor website. These will be taken forward in the unions’ organising, social dialogue and advocacy campaigns, including their work with alliance partners.

https://www.sartuc.org/document/regional-meeting-to-promote-the-lawful-foreign-employment-building-relations-between-the-trade-unions-at-the-countries-of-origin-and-destination-and-experience-sharing-of-migrant-recruitment-advisor/

The activity took place in seminar & workshop format attended by around 35 participants

(10 females, 25 males) physically in Kathmandu from more than 10 countries including the representatives of the trade union in the countries of origin and destination, civil society organisations , and government representative.

The activity was held for 2 (two) days from 13 to 14 December 2022. The activity has brought together experience, expertise and ideas from different countries and sectors. The representatives of the trade Unions from the countries of origin and destination shared updates and discussed prospects of collaboration and planning for cooperation for the protection of migrant workers. The activity also observed updates on the implementation of the MRA initiatives in South Asia (Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh).

SARTUC hosted the event locally together with other local trade unions in Nepal. Interpretation service was made available in Nepali to/from English.

The main discussion was about support in the forming of the common consensus in making the labour migration safer and ending the forced labour situation. It was followed by sharing of knowledge and experience among trade unions from different countries on the protection of the rights of the migrant workers.

The participants also listened to the sharing of updates of the Recruitment Advisor implementation in the South Asian Countries; Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This work is supported by ILO GOALS project. The national unions will seek to mobilise fund to continue work after GOALS project timeline ends in March 2023.

The participants agreed to reinforce the work of the trade unions in South Asian countries to make the foreign employment safe and to increase collaboration between unions in origin and destination countries. The participants also reached consensus about expansion of the Recruitment Advisor in the other South Asian countries namely in Pakistan or India. Fund raising effort will be done by ITUC/ITUC-AP/ATUC/SARTUC to cover cost to implement work plan and expansion in 2023.

Trade unions from destination countries i.e. South Korea, Malaysia and Jordan presented their work and experience in organising migrant workers and campaigning for better work & living condition for migrant workers.

Speakers from government representative and other organisations also shared a session about their effort in protection of migrant workers like National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Nepal and National Network for Safe Migration (NNSM).

Solidarity Center Nepal and FES Nepal representatives were also present during the 2-days discussion.

The participants came out with workplan 2023 on collaboration of trade unions to protect migrant workers rights focusing on 3 destination country/region, see below the outcomes:

South Korea

Priorities:

  • Ensuring labour rights protection for migrant workers recruited through new visa scheme governed by law ministry
  • Campaigning on rights to change jobs for E-visa holders/workers
  • Campaigning on better working & living condition for all migrant workers

Proposed activities:

  • Sharing session (online) between unions in origin countries and destination countries
  • Joint campaign/joint statement in solidarity with action done in South Korea

Malaysia

Priorities:

  • Establishing coordination at country level
  • Agreement between TUs from origin and destination countries with support and facilitation from ITUC-AP/SARTUC
  • Establish contact point of communication between TUs from origin and destination countries with
  • Enhance cooperation with Human Rights Commission and other rights based organisations

Proposed activities:

  • Develop agenda of priority
  • Set up planning

Jordan/Arab states

Priorities:

  • Awareness raising & providing orientation for migrant workers on laws, rules, regulation
  • Campaigning on fair recruitment for migrant workers
  • Organising migrant workers
  • GCM & identification of key objectives to work on

Proposed activities:

  • Inter-regional meeting of ITUC AP affiliates in Gulf country to develop concrete workplan and
  • Develop guide on fair recruitment
  • Conduct meeting/discussion on climate change effect on migrant workers
  • Develop information hub
  • Conduct session (online/offline) among TUs to share and learn best practice
  • Formation of TUs coalition on migrant workers