Initiative to promote decent working conditions for migrants underway

An initiative for ensuring fair recruitment and decent working conditions for labour migrants and returnees in the country has kicked off.

The project is being implemented by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations with funding support from the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ).

Known as Initiative for Labour Migration Employment and Reintegration (LMER) in Nigeria and Ghana, it is being implemented simultaneously in Ghana and Nigeria aimed at protecting potential and returning migrants in the two countries.

The initiative will establish a fair and effective labour migration governance frameworks in both countries.

Joint review

Partners in the project in Ghana, including representatives of Ghanian agencies, the ILO and GIZ, yesterday met in Accra for a joint briefing and review of the initiative.

Participants were drawn from the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Trades Union Congress, Youth Employment Agency, the Ghana Statistical Service, the Labour Department and the Regional Institute for Population Studies and the Centre for Migration Studies.

The National Programme Manager of the ILO, Ms Akua Ofori-Asumadu, who took the participants through the components of the project, said the initiative would support the labour migration policy framework in Ghana and Nigeria.

That, she said, would be done through the strengthening of the capacity of governments to protect human and labour rights of migrant workers during recruitment, employment, return and reintegration and the ratification and domestication of respective ILO instruments.

Additionally, she said, Migrant Resource Centres in Nigeria and Public Employment Centres in Ghana would, under the project, offer services to enhance employment and income generating opportunities of potential returnee migrants and support their reintegration in a sustainable manner.

Already, Ms Ofori-Asumadu said, the Ghanaian-German Centres for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration, located close to the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, were helping returnees to start and improve their businesses, equip beneficiaries with entrepreneurship skills and access to adapted financial services.

The initiative identifies labour migration as an important feature of contemporary labour markets globally and is designed to contribute to strengthening labour migration governance and enhancing capacities of relevant actors in the two target countries.

The project is scheduled to end in October 2020 but implementers said there was a possibility for an expansion.

Policy

The Director of the Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Mrs Emma Ofori-Agyeman, said the country now had a Labour Migration Policy (LMP) in place following its approval by the Cabinet.

The policy, she explained, would strengthen the labour migration governance system and promote policy coherence, collection and analysis of reliable data, and the protection of the rights of migrants and their families.

She said the policy also sought to promote the effective management of labour migration in the country and optimise the benefits of labour migration for development and ensuring a positive impact on migrants.

Survey

A Labour Statistician from the Ghana Statistical Service, Mr Anthony Oduro-Denkyira, said the service, with support from the European Union was currently undertaking a pilot cost of recruitment survey to establish the cost migrants bore when they migrated from Ghana to work in other countries.