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Meetings with High Level government officials for promotion and protection of rights of migrant workers

24 Jun 2014

WOREC is continuously working for protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers. We have been raising voice for migrant workers from Streets to Singha Durbar (official seat of government of Nepal) to Global Forum on Migration and Development. We warmly welcome the government's initiatives to bring distressed migrant women from Lebanon while, we have strongly raised voice against government's decision to restrict the mobility of aspirant migrant women. Lobby and advocacy has been one of our major strategies. The recent meetings with Chief Secretary, Secretaries and Vice Chairman (VC) of National Planning Commission (NPC) were part of our advocacy to create pressure for government to develop proactive migration policy and promote migrant rights as human rights.

Meeting with Chief Secretary

The initial meeting was held on 8th May, 2014 with Chief Secretary Mr. Lilamani Paudel regarding the recent government decision to ban prospective migrants from working as domestic workers in GCC countries and its negative implications .Relating from our day to day work and field visits, we briefed Mr. Paudel on discriminatory laws, trafficking occurring in the process of migration and access to justice mechanism for distressed migrant workers and Violence against Women (VAW) survivors.

Mr. Poudel committed to organize a meeting with Ministry of Labor and other related stakeholders within the upcoming week regarding the decision along with other migrant's issues.

Meeting with Chief Secretary and Under Secretaries

The next meeting was called by Chief Secretary on 21st May, 2014 on the request of WOREC. In  this High Level Meeting, under secretaries  from Ministry of Home Affairs ,Ministry of Women and Social Welfare, Ministry of Foreign affairs ,Ministry of Local development and Infrastructure, Ministry of Labor  and  a representative from UN Women were invited. Basically, discussions were held on the impacts of Age Ban Policy and rehabilitation and reintegration of Violence against Women (VAW) survivors. The various issues raised by WOREC concerning migrant workers especially women were:

  • The situation of women migrant workers in destination countries especially Lebanon.
  • Effects of Age Ban Policy on women and trafficking occurring in the process of migration.
  • Increased migration trend amongst women and its social impacts. (Letang VDC as exemplary village)
  • Government support mechanism for undocumented migrants.
  • Effectiveness of Safe Migration Information Booth, its sustainability and work duplication.
  • Reintegration/rehabilitation of VAW survivors and ongoing anti Rape Campaign.

 After thorough discussions, the following directives were given by Chief Secretary Mr.Lilamani Paudel to the concerned ministries:

Ministry of Labor:

  • Add human resource at Department of Foreign Employment (DOFE), expedite its work and strengthen its monitoring mechanism especially in relation to outsourcing agencies and identifying fake documents.
  • Change the modality of current training providing institutes and develop standard module. Foreign Employment Promotion Board to establish and run the Country Specific Training institutes without charging any amount of money from aspirant migrants, resource person will be hired for the trainings and government will conduct exams of trainees and provide accreditation.
  • Revise guidelines of "Workers Welfare Fund" and allocate some amount of money for rehabilitation and reintegration of returnee and distressed migrants.
  • Proper monitoring and evaluation of Safe Migration Project implemented in various districts by FEPB with support from Sami/Helvatas.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

  • Establish community outreach center in destination countries with support from Non Resident Nepalese (NRN) through proper monitoring.
  • In U.A.E, the sponsor of domestic workers must deposit 5000 (local currency) in Nepalese Embassy. This good practice should be replicated in other countries.

Ministry of Women and Social Welfare

  • Women Development Offices in district must focus on returnee and distressed women migrants while allocating budget for women and children.
  • For sustainability and to show government's stake, Safe Houses should be run in public- private partnership model.

Ministry of Home Affairs:

  • Regulate the advertisement broadcasted through local FM stations on foreign employment.
  • At district, the fraudulent cases related to migration must be addressed using trafficking laws.
  • Initiation of providing No Objection letter to prospective migrant workers travelling to third countries via India.

We too had side meeting with Under Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs for considering the agenda of migration in upcoming SAARC summit. He was positive and suggested us to meet VC of NPC regarding this issue.

Meeting with Vice Chairman, National Planning Commission

On   25th May,2014 we had meeting with Dr. Govinda Raj Pokhrel  Vice Chairman of NPC .We informed him about the migration scenario in South Asia and how SAARC could become a good platform to discuss about migration linking it with development We submitted the concept note(draft) on the importance of considering the issue of migration on SAARC summit .

 Many important decisions were made during these meetings however actual results are yet to be felt. For this, WOREC will continuously follow up the progress made regarding the implementation of the decisions.