The post Nepal Hosts ‘Fifth’ Colombo Process Senior Officials Meeting appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>The event that seeks to address issues concerning regional labor migration governance including foreign employment management will witness the participation of senior government officials, ministers, migration experts/organizations and various stakeholders from 12 countries.
The Colombo Process, a regional consultative process focuses on the management of overseas employment and contractual labor for Asian countries.
The list of countries under Colombo Process include host country Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indian and Indonesia.
These Asian countries provide close to 30 percent of the world’s estimated 150 million labor migrants.
Addressing the inaugural program on the occasion, Nepal Labor, Employment and Social Security Minister Gokarna Bista emphasized on the ‘safe labor migration promotion’ because it is a key aspect to both host and source nation.
“Our longstanding agenda to promote safe migration is finally receiving increased attention globally. Migration is increasingly considered as an important vehicle for development of both the host and sending countries. In this context, ensuring human rights of well-being of migrant workers has become a shared reality,” Bista said.
The Colombo Process Senior Officials Meeting’s fifth edition will also discuss implementation of the upcoming Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) prepared by these countries with significant inputs to the draft.
The member states recommendations to GCM focus on five broad themes:
“We believe that formal adoption of the GCM in December is going to add importance to regional consultative processes like the Colombo Process. They will play a key role in implementing GCM objectives and actions underlying the global framework,” said Dr. Nenette Motus, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Director, IOM Asia and the Pacific and IOM Delegation Head in Kathmandu.
The final GCM draft will be submitted to UN in Marrakesh, Morocco in December 2018.
Meanwhile, Senior Official’s meeting will prepare a progress report for the 6th Ministerial Consultation (November 16, 2018)on other thematic areas agreed upon by member states including:
The 12-member minister-level meeting will also endorse the Kathmandu Declaration on Labor Migration.
The post Nepal Hosts ‘Fifth’ Colombo Process Senior Officials Meeting appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>The post Nepali Migrants: National Migration Health Policy on Cards appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>In this regard, the Ministry of Health held discussions with the UN Migration Agency, International Organization for Migration (IOM), in Kathmandu on October 12, 2017.
Speaking on the matter, the IOM Nepal Chief of Mission Paul Norton said the Sustainable Development Goal 3.8 on universal health coverage cannot be achieved without addressing the health needs of migrants and refugees.
“This policy will provide an opportunity to promote a more coherent and integrated approach to heal, beyond the treatment of specific diseases for all populations, including migrants, irrespective of their legal and migratory status,” Norton added.
In its statement, IOM informed that the policy would address health concerns of the Nepali migrants at all stages of the migrant process while also protecting host communities from public health threats related to migration.
NMHP is part of the project, ‘Strengthening Government Capacity in the Development and Implementation of a National Strategic Action Plan on Migration and Health in Nepal,’ put forth by IOM in collaboration with the Nepali Health Ministry, and is funded by IOM Development Fund.
According to IOM, Nepali migrants have made a major contribution towards the economic development of Nepal.
As per the Department of Foreign Employment, over 50 percent of all the Nepalis households currently have at least one migrant from their family living abroad or in Nepal as a returnee.
In terms of remittance-receiving countries, Nepal stands 23rd in global ranking and 3rd in terms of the contribution to GDP through remittances after Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic, IOM informed.
UN agencies, Nepali Government officials, development partners, academia, NGO, private sector firms and media are among those who attended the meeting.
The post Nepali Migrants: National Migration Health Policy on Cards appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>The post Labor-sending Asian Nations Discuss Safe Migration appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>With an aim to ensure a safe environment for the migrant workers, the labor-sending countries of Asia gathered in Kathmandu to prepare a joint action plan for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) process.
The two-day meeting that began yesterday witnessed a participation of senior officials of the Colombo Process Member States (CPMS) that belong to Colombo Forum, a forum that works on management of overseas employment and contractual labor for countries of origins in Asia.
According to the organizers, plans to protect and promote the rights of CPMS’ migrant workers going abroad, while also enhancing migration governance and engaging in the GCM process will be discussed in the meeting.
In his inaugural address, Nepali Minister for Labor 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.”
He further called upon the member countries stating, “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 in better management of migrants and providing them services.”
The discussions and recommendations will move around five themes of Colombo Process such as fostering ethical recruitment, effective pre-departure orientation and empowerment of migrant workers, skills and qualification recognition processes of labor migrants, international labor market analysis and remittances.
Chaired by Nepal, Colombo Process is a Regional Consultative Process on migration with 12 Asian labor-sending countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam as its members.
The officials are aimed at coming up with an action plan based on the take-aways of an expert-level meeting held on September 8, 2017 towards addressing GCM-related issues.
And, the meeting outcome will be presented at the regional UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific consultation in Bangkok and submitted to the GCM stocktaking meeting in Mexico.
The Ministry of Labor and Employment, Government of Nepal is hosting the meet with support from International Organization for Migration, Nepal (IOM) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
The post Labor-sending Asian Nations Discuss Safe Migration appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>