A two-day meeting of labour sending Asian countries kicked off in Kathmandu on Wednesday. The meeting, organised with the aim to develop a joint contribution to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) preparatory process, is attended by senior officials of the Colombo Process Member States (CP MSs).

 

The meeting has brought together officials, who are responsible for supporting their countries’ endeavours to protect and promote the rights of their migrant workers going abroad, enhancing migration governance, and engaging in the GCM process, the organiser said.

 

Inaugurating the meeting, State Minister for Labour and Employment Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary said: “While the meeting will discuss on our common position and recommendations to move ahead, we must not forget that the migrants from our countries immensely contribute to the development, prosperity and diversity of the transit and destination countries. It is an appropriate time to strongly raise the common concerns of our migrants and suggest better options to address the issue which will also be beneficial for the transit and destination countries to better manage the migrants and in providing services to the migrants.”   

 

According to the organisers, the discussions and recommendations will be based on the five thematic areas of the CP: skills and qualification recognition processes of labour migrants; fostering ethical recruitment; effective pre-departure orientation and empowerment for migrant workers; remittances; and international labour market analysis. 

 

The outcome of the meeting - the joint CP contribution to the GCM - will be shared at the regional UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific consultation in Bangkok, and also be the submitted for consideration at the GCM stocktaking  meeting in Mexico.  

 

The Colombo Process is a Regional Consultative Process on migration comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.