Costa Rica - Aiming at providing information on access to labor justice of migrants, IOM has launched a virtual course to help people easily understand topics regarding labor migration, justice and access to rights.

This online course has been created by the IOM Regional Office for Central America, North America and the Caribbean along with the National Commission for the Improvement of Justice Administration of Costa Rica.

The course contents are addressed to migrants, people working with migrants’ assistance and the general public interested in subjects such as migrant workers’ vulnerabilities and needs as well as the  international legal framework for the protection of their rights. The contents also include basic concepts on migration and migrant workers.

The course is part of the initiatives of IOM in the region in response to the needs of information related to the rights enjoyed by the migrant population, in particular migrant workers. It also encourages actors in the field of migration, like government officials, to manage migration adequately and assist migrants based on the protection of their rights.

Central America, North America and the Caribbean constitute one of the main regions of origin, transit, destination and return on migrants in the world. Even though the total population of this region hardly exceeds 7 per cent of the world population (about 550 million people), it is home to around 25 per cent of all international migrants.

These figures show the importance of human mobility in the region and an idea of the magnitude of the challenges that the countries in the region are facing to adequately manage migration and assist and protect migrants’ rights.

One of the migrant workers’ rights more frequently violated in this region is the access to justice, understood as the faculty to attend courts in search of solutions to conflicts and restoration of rights.

IOM’s Regional Director for Central America, North America and the Caribbean, Marcelo Pisani, said, “In the region, despite all the benefits that migration has brought to both communities of origin and countries of destination, migrants, including migrant workers, keep on suffering many types of abuse, discrimination and disadvantages.  There is usually little or no recognition of their rights by their employers.”

The e-learning format of the course enables any person to access it from anywhere in the world through the Migration Learning Platform (PAM in its Spanish acronym), which is a virtual space containing the main materials in migration issues elaborated by IOM regional thematic specialists in Central America, North America and the Caribbean and IOM mission staff in the region along with partners of the Organization.

The Course on Access to Labor Justice of Migrants can be found at: http://www.plataformadeaprendizaje.iom.int/home/

For further information please contact: Salvador Gutiérrez, Regional Office for Central America, North America and the Caribbean, Tel: + 506 2212 5337, Email: sgutierrez@iom.int