Dominican labour and migration authorities are meeting today in the
capital Santo Domingo to exchange information on flows of migrant
labour to and from the Dominican Republic and best practices in the
management of labour migration.

Jointly organized by IOM and the Dominican Ministry of Labour,
the two-day workshop aims to improve labour migration management in
the Dominican Republic by sensitizing stakeholders to the
importance of modern, sustainable and rights-based approaches,
especially focusing on south-south migration flows.

The first day of the workshop focused on the labour migration
context in the Dominican Republic, including the characteristics of
labour migration flows, the Dominican diaspora and remittances, the
legal framework to manage labour migration, and the importance of
managing migration in the midst of the global economic crisis.

Today's session is addressing best practices for the technical
implementation of inter-agency labour migration management, by
defining the roles and responsibilities of the Ministry of Labour,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the General Directorate of
Migration, and creating strategies for improved coordination
amongst them.

IOM's Regional Specialist on Labour Migration and Migration for
Development, Ricardo Cordero, is leading the workshop with support
from technical experts from the Dominican ministries of Labour and
Foreign Affairs, the Dominican General Directorate of Migration,
the Dominican National Office of Statistics, and the Embassy of
Canada in the Dominican Republic.  Technical representatives
from IOM, ILO, UNFPA, and various academic institutions and NGOs
working on labour migration are also attending.

"Sensitizing decision-makers on labour migration realities and
about the role they play in the management of labour migration,
particularly south-south migration, is essential.  Similar
workshops in Panama and El Salvador in recent months have assisted
in advancing a labour migration agenda that promotes development
and the protection of migrant rights in the region," explains
Cordero.

The Dominican Republic is both a sending and receiving country
for labour migration.   The Caribbean nation hosts
migrant workers from several countries, including considerable
flows from Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba and Spain. 
Dominican migrant workers are also employed in Europe (especially
Spain and Italy), the United States, Canada and throughout Latin
America.

According to a report released this week by the Dominican
Ministry of Labour, entitled Haitian Immigration and the Labour
Market: Study of Workers in Construction and Banana Production in
the Dominican Republic, Haitian migrants account for more than half
(53 per cent) of construction workers in the Dominican Republic (up
from 27.7 per cent in the year 2000) and approximately two-thirds
(66.3 per cent) of labourers in the production of bananas.

"It is incredible that Haitian nationals make up the largest
proportion of the lowest-paid within these sectors, which in turn,
paradoxically, are at highest risk at work, especially in the
construction sector, and this too is worth a considerable
revision," said Francisco Domínguez, Dominican Minister of
Labour, during the launch of the study.

This week's workshop is part of IOM's regional project Improving
Labour Migration Administration in Central America and the
Dominican Republic funded by the Human Resources and Skills
Development Canada Labour Programme (HRSDC) of the International
Programme for Professional Labour Administration (IPPLA) within the
Canadian Ministry of Labour.

For more information, please contact:

Alicia Sangro

Tel: 809 688 8174

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

or

Zoë Stopak-Behr

IOM Santo Domingo

Tel: 809 688 8174

E-mail: "mailto:zstopak-behr@iom.int">zstopak-behr@iom.int