ILO Regional Tripartite Meeting on Challenges to Labour Migration Policy and Management in Asia

ILO’s Regional Tripartite Meeting, brings together representatives from governments, employer and worker groups from 21 countries in Asia and the Pacific to review migration trends and issues in relation to economic and social development in the region.

Press release | BANGKOK | 26 June 2003

BANGKOK (ILO News) – While the movement of labour has become an important and enduring phenomenon associated with economic growth and development, there are several signs of market failure associated with the process of migration, including racism and xenophobia, trafficking and forced labour.

Representatives of government, employer and worker groups attending an ILO regional tripartite meeting in Bangkok this week have been assessing the opportunities and challenges facing countries in the region amid continuing demand for migrant labour.

Rosalinda Baldoz, representing the Philippines’ Overseas Employment administration, Department of Labour and Employment, said the Philippines considers overseas employment key to social development, empowering workers and their families both financially and professionally. Jose Simeon, from the Employers’ Confederation of Philippines (ECOP), urged sending countries to focus on using a comprehensive skills analysis system as an effective method of ensuring migrant workers meet the specific needs of receiving countries.

Alan Matheson, representing the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), said the era of globalization had brought a new focus to the issue of migrant labour. He stressed that labour rights and representation, a key element in the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda, should be recognized by both sending and receiving countries. This was a key factor in combatting irregular migration, abuse of migrant workers, and to ensure equal protection for women, he said.

While regulation is a necessary part of effective migration management, Manolo I. Abela, chief of the ILO’s International Migration Programme, said the danger over-regulation posed was that it often created the ideal situation under which dubious recruiters and middlemen could flourish.

In an opening speech, Minister of Labour Suwat Liptapanlop said that the Thai Government acknowledges that migration-related issues can be best addressed not by a single government, but through engagement and cooperation with other governments. He said the Thai Government has provided technical assistance to neighbouring countries to address one of the root causes of labour migration – a discrepancy in economic development.

Regional Director of the ILO in Asia and the Pacific, Yasuyuki Nodera, said during his opening speech that the ILO’s unique tripartite framework provided the ideal vehicle through which to develop and implement migration policy. "The expertise and considerable experience of the ILO and its values and standards-based approach should be the basis for shaping national and regional labour migration management policy and practice in Asia," he said.

The ILO urged more countries in Asia and the Pacific to ratify the Migration for Employment

Convention (Convention 97), Migrant Workers’ Convention (Convention 143) and the Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation) Convention (Convention 19), along with the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which came into force on Tuesday.

Delegates ended the meeting by agreeing upon a summary of conclusions (see attached). The issue of migration is set to discussed in detail at the International Labour Conference in Geneva next year.