Government officials from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Libya have
just completed a two-week study tour to Guatemala and Colombia to
learn about IOM's Temporary Foreign Workers Programme in Guatemala
and Circular and Temporary Labour Migration Programme in Colombia
under the ongoing European Commission - and Italian
Government-funded project "Facilitating a Coherent Migration
Management Approach in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Libya by
Promoting Legal Migration and Preventing Further Irregular
Migration".

The 12 African officials were briefed about the IOM programmes
and visited some of the migrant workers and their families and
communities who have benefitted from the IOM programmes.

The information and firsthand knowledge acquired during this
visit will be used when developing a pilot circular migration
programme that will be carried out in 2011 between Ghana and Italy
with the aim of replicating such a programme with other West
African countries of origin and European Union countries of
destination.

"This visit has allowed us to clearly understand which
components are crucial to take into account when developing and
implementing circular migration schemes.  These well-managed
labour migration programmes can create a positive impact on regular
migration flows, as well as on local development," said Jo Rispoli,
Head of the Technical Cooperation Department of IOM Accra, who
co-organised the study tour with colleagues from IOM's missions in
Guatemala and Colombia.

The IOM circular and temporary labour migration models have been
successfully carried out between Colombia and Spain as well as
Guatemala and Canada over the past several years.

The IOM Temporary Foreign Workers Programme in Guatemala has
supported nearly 16,000 migrant workers to go to Canada for an
average period of six months per year since its inception almost
eight years ago.  It is carried out in close collaboration
with Canadian employers associations based primarily in Quebec and
Ontario.  The participants in the study tour had an
opportunity to take part in the recruitment and evaluation process
involving 30 candidate migrant workers as well as meet with a
number of return migrants and their families in order to gain
insights into the psychosocial effects experienced as a result of
the circular migration scheme.

The IOM Circular and Temporary Labour Migration Programme in
Colombia was initially carried out with the Unión
Pagesos de Cataluña (Farmer's Union of Catalonia,
Spain), which allowed more than 3,800 Colombians to travel to Spain
to work in the agricultural sector for periods of 4 to 8 months,
with participants returning to their communities of origin.

"This programme proves how well-managed migration, which
respects the human rights of migrants as well as the laws of the
countries of origin and destination and which fills the labour
needs of employers, can provide a positive outcome for all
involved," explains Marcelo Pisani, IOM Chief of Mission in
Colombia.

The delegation visited income-generating projects created by
Colombian participants with money earned in Spain in the city of
Valledupar, in northeast Colombia.  They also met with
officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Learning
Service (SENA by its Spanish acronym), and local authorities.

The study tour concluded on 5 November with a seminar on labour
migration, focusing particularly on good practices and lessons
learned in the Colombian context.

For more information, please contact:

Jorge Gallo

IOM Bogota

Tel: +57-1639-7777

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

or

Stefan Mantsch

IOM Guatemala

Tel: + 502-236-747-53

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