CP regional policy focuses on enhancing migrant worker rights

Colombo Process (CP) meetings began yesterday focusing on safe labour migration, new opportunities and encouraging transfer of remittances through formal banking networks.

Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara said that the regional policy dialogue forum on migration, the CP that commenced yesterday (12), focusing on areas such as further enhancing the rights of migrant workers, the development of opportunities in the international labour market and cheaper faster and safer transfer of remittances.

The Minister was addressing the media regarding the CP, a state-led information-sharing and policy dialogue forum which will be held under the leadership of the Government of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is all set to host regional policy dialogue forum on migration in collaboration with IOM Sri Lanka It will be held under 3 Thematic Area Working Groups (TAWGs) from December 12 to 14, 2023 in Colombo, under the leadership of the Government of Sri Lanka.

The 3 TAWGs are chaired by the Governments of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

The event will see the launch of a “Regional Manual on Reintegration for South Asian Migrant Workers” which provides guidance on best practices and methods of implementation for sustainable solutions that are inclusive and gender-responsive to the reintegration of returning migrant workers. This Manual is being piloted in Sri Lanka by IOM with the support of the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.

The event is supported by the Governance of Labour Migration in South and South-East Asia (GOALS) Programme, a joint regional labour migration programme implemented by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Representatives from eleven active Colombo Process Member States (CPMS) will participate in the event plus observers from civil society, the private sector, trade unions, academia, SDC, the UN agencies implementing the GOALS Programme and other development partners.

The Minister addressing the media further emphasised, “The Colombo Process has been operating for 20 years. It is a platform for its members to come together with a shared interest to ensure that the rights, dignity, and well-being of the region’s migrant workers in destination countries are upheld”.

“The Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment is giving leadership to the Colombo Process which started in Colombo and this time it will be held again in Colombo. The International Organization for Migration is fully supporting this endeavour”.

“We will also discuss the challenges and opportunities of supporting the sustainable reintegration of migrant workers from the Colombo Process Member States who are returning home following employment overseas”.

“The work of the Colombo Process supports Sri Lanka’s work to encourage regular international labour migration and the implementation of the Ministry’s new National Policy and Action Plan on Migration for Employment”.

“The Government fully supports it. It has received the full approval and support of the President and the Cabinet” the Minister said.

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