IOM Minsk participates in Eastern Partnership Panel on Migration and Asylum

On 6-7 May 2015 in Minsk EaP Panel on Migration and Asylum gathered representatives of almost all member-countries of Eastern Partnership, international organizations and private sector.

During the meeting 50 experts shared their opinions and best practices in the field of labour migration paying special attention to the issues of admission, protection and control.

The event became a platform for discussion of acute issues on the field of labour migration and provided the participants with the opportunity to look at the issues from different angles in long-term perspectives for both sending and receiving countries.

Among the discussed issues were procedural aspects of admission of labour migrants, admission of specific categories of labour migrants in the context of EU legal framework and national law (based on the experience of Azerbaijan and Latvia); cooperation of public and private institutions in the recruitment of labour from abroad and to work abroad. At the end of the first working day, the delegates visited the Directory on Citizenship and Migration of the Main Directory of the Interior of Minsk City Executive Committee, were they were informed on procedures of issuance of permissions to engage migrant workers, licensing of the activities related to the employment abroad, etc.

On the second day the working session was dedicated to illegal employment of migrant workers, practical problems and their solutions. Zeynal Hajiyev, Chief of IOM Minsk Mission, opened the session with the speech on risks posed by illegal employment:

The minimization of negative effects caused by illegal employment, and the associated risks of human trafficking and exploitation, depends on a large variety of closely intertwined factors and requires intensive cooperation and coordination of efforts between all stakeholders – the governments of the countries of origin and destination, the international community, civil society and business structures – as none of the above on its own cannot effectively address the emerging risks of illegal employment which are becoming more acute in the present-day world.

The information and best practices learned by the participants during the meeting can be referred to when improving national legal framework in the field of labour migration, estimating the experience in the field of migrants flows regulation and engaging labour from abroad by organizations and individuals.

Photos are taken from eapmigrationpanel.org.