IOM Colombia has signed a labour migration cooperation agreement
with the locality of Usaquen, one of the 20 districts that make up
the Bogota metropolitan area.

The agreement aims to develop the productivity and employability
skills of potential migrant workers, and generate income for local
development by hiring workers from the locality of Usaquen through
temporary and circular labour migration schemes.

IOM will provide support to companies looking to hire migrant
workers, and will assist the potential beneficiaries during the
selection process as well as in their preparation and adaptation
for life abroad.  As part of its extensive worldwide work on
remittances, IOM will advise families in Usaquen about the
productive use of remittances.

For its part the Usaquen authorities will identify potential
beneficiaries, and put in place the necessary application
process.  IOM will be in charge of hiring personnel and will
provide financing for the office where the project will be carried
out.

The agreement will be in place for one year and has a budget of
556,985.200 Colombian pesos (some USD 277,600), provided by Usaquen
and the AENEAS Programme of the European Union through
IOM/Colombia.

According to the Banco de la República (Colombia’s
central bank), in 2006 Bogota received nearly USD 560 million in
remittances or 14 per cent of the total for the country.

IOM has carried out a similar agreement with the locality of
Suba (another district in Bogota) which allowed 150 Colombians to
travel to Canada for work with the Maple Leaf meat processing
company in the province of Manitoba.

IOM Colombia also provided its technical support for a labour
migration agreement that allowed 38 Colombian farm workers from the
Sumapaz district to travel to Catalonia (Spain) to work as seasonal
agricultural workers for the fruit harvest.

For more information please contact:

Jorge Patiño

IOM Bogota

Tel. (+57 1) 594 6410 Ext.308

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