Bangladesh – The majority of some 2.5 million Asian workers who migrate each year do so for temporary low and semi-skilled jobs in the Gulf States, Europe, and other parts of Asia. Without good migration policies and programmes, States do not always get the full development benefits from its migrant nationals and the migrants are open to exploitation and abuse.
 
In order to promote safer migration, IOM and the European Union have launched a two-year regional project to help four Asian countries to manage the increasingly complex phenomenon of labour migration in and among their countries.
 
A formal signing ceremony took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh last week for the project, which covers Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines.

Its outcomes will help future migration management among the Member States in a non-binding regional platform - the Colombo Process (which includes the countries in the EU-IOM programme, as well as Afghanistan, China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.)
 
The EU is contributing EUR 1.5 million to the EUR 2 million project, which sets out to improve the quality of the recruitment process, to match demand with supply, and ensure knowledge of migrant rights.

It consists of local level information campaigns, as well as regional consultations for labour recruiting agencies and labour officers. A pilot referral centre for the welfare of women migrants will also be set up in a destination country, and research on expanding labour markets will be strengthened under the project.
                                                                                                                                                                               
For more information please contact

Asif Munier
IOM Bangladesh
Tel: +8802 9889765
Email: amunier@iom.int

or

go to: www.colomboprocess.org/