Douala - From 18 to 20 September 2024, the Hotel Sawa hosted a workshop on capacity building for key national stakeholders with a view to drawing up a roadmap on the ethical recruitment and decent work of migrant workers in Cameroon.  The workshop was organised by Cameroon's Ministry of Labour and Social Security with the support of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), as part of the implementation of the Joint Labour Migration Programme (JLMP).

Three main strategic axes were developed during the three brainstorming sessions. The first, which focused on strengthening the legal and institutional frameworks, highlighted the need to consider new migration agreements designed to promote the portability of social rights in countries with a large community of migrant workers of Cameroonian nationality. In addition, the pursuit of actions to develop reciprocal social security agreements and the strengthening of the legal and institutional framework on human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants were envisaged with the aim of promoting ethical recruitment and decent work.

Strategic area 2, which focuses on improving information, education and communication systems on the labour market, highlighted the importance of improving communication systems between the labour market and migrant workers, as well as access to migration-related data.

The third strategic area, relating to the protection of migrant workers‘ rights and assistance, highlighted the need to monitor government action to ensure that legislative provisions are effective, and to provide guidance on the procedure for obtaining visas for foreigners’ employment contracts to all the institutional players involved in ethical recruitment.

At the end of the various brainstorming and discussion sessions, a number of recommendations were made aimed at genuinely improving the working conditions of migrant workers. These included organising awareness-raising campaigns and strengthening the skills of labour inspectors and sectoral administrations responsible for supervising employment agencies.
We also note the admirable commitment of the stakeholders and the encouraging results in terms of strengthening the mechanisms for protecting migrant workers along the migratory recruitment corridors to, from and in transit through Cameroon
 

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For further information, please contact:

• MAURICE Charles Quentin, IOM Cameroon, cmaurice@iom.int