Ministers and high officials from the 11 Asian Member States of the
Colombo Process will meet in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 20th and 21st
April, to discuss ways to promote Asian migrant workers' rights and
welfare.

The theme of the ministerial meeting – the fourth of its
kind – is "Migration with Dignity" – a challenge that
lies at the heart the regional consultative process, which
addresses the management of overseas employment and contractual
labour for countries of origin in Asia.

Senior officials from the Colombo Member States, which include
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan,
the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, will also meet
for a working session on 19th April.

The meeting, which is being hosted by the current Chair of the
Process, Bangladesh, with Secretariat support from IOM, will focus
on migrant rights, challenges and best practices among mostly
labour sending Asian countries.

The ministerial meeting will be opened by Bangladesh Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina. Other speakers will include Bangladesh's
Finance Minister, Foreign Minister and Expatriate Welfare
Minister.

Indonesian Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Abdul
Muhaimin Iskandar will also speak as the immediate past Chair of
the Process, as will IOM Director General William Lacy Swing.

Organizers hope to adopt joint recommendations – a Dhaka
Declaration - and to finalize the operational modality of the
Process, which was launched in 2004. IOM will also share the
findings of a stock-taking study on labour migration in Colombo
Member States.

Prior to the meeting, two side events were organised - one by
IOM on Migration and Health and another by regional civil society
networks Migrant Forum in Asia and CARAM Asia.

Civil society organisations, international organizations and
Observer States, which include eight migrant labour receiving
countries - Bahrain, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Republic of
Korea, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – are also
expected to participate in parts of the meeting to put forward
their recommendations.

The meeting will also draw on other regional consultations, such
as the Regional Dialogue on Migrants' Health held in Bangkok in
July 2010 and the Asia EU Dialogue held in Brussels in February
2011.

"IOM remains committed to supporting the Colombo Process and
assisting in the implementation of some of the recommendations with
governments in Asia. There are good ideas here that can be
replicated. We hope that the recommendations of this event will be
an inspirational document for the Member States and IOM to further
advance the rights, welfare and dignity of the millions of migrants
in Asia," said IOM Director General Swing.

For more information, please go to "paragraph-link-no-underline" href="http://www.colomboprocess.org/"
target="_blank" title="">http://www.colomboprocess.org/ 
or contact:

Asif Munier

IOM Dhaka

Tel: 01714114659

E-mail: "mailto:amunier@iom.int">amunier@iom.int

or

Sonia Sarder

Tel: +880.2.9889765

E-mail: "mailto:ssarder@iom.int">ssarder@iom.int