IOM Director General Brunson McKinley will take part in the 35th
Arab Labour Conference, which opens tomorrow in Egypt’s Red
Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The week-long event, which brings together Arab labour ministers
and representatives from regional and international organizations,
will discuss labour-related issues such as the industrialisation
policies in Arab countries and the impact of unemployment on
socio-economic development and ways to encourage labour mobility,
as a factor of economic wealth, in the Arab World.

Measures to end exploitative practices and promote the rights of
Arab workers will also be discussed.

Contemporary labour mobility in the Arab World has experienced a
significant shift over the years with the employment of increasing
numbers of overseas contractual workers, mainly from Asia. The Arab
World hosts 10 per cent of the world’s migrants and member
states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have the highest
percentage of contractual foreign workers anywhere in the
world.

IOM and the Arab Labour Organization (ALO) signed a cooperation
agreement in February 2006 to help both organizations carry out
joint initiatives on migration and temporary contractual labour
workers issues aimed at strengthening the capacity of ALO Member
States to better manage labour mobility and its effects. The ALO
and IOM are currently working on the implementation of the
cooperation agreement.

For further information, please contact:

Jean Philippe Chauzy

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 79 285 4366

E-mail: "mailto:pchauzy@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">pchauzy@iom.int