Press release

EU and ILO promote decent work for health professionals

For the past three years, the ILO, in partnership with migration-relevant government agencies, employers and workers’ organizations and civil society, has been implementing the European Union-financed project on “Decent Work across Borders”. The project focuses on raising awareness for the safe, ethical and decent migration and voluntary return of health-care professionals and skilled workers from the Philippines, India and Viet Nam to selected European member States.

Press release | Makati City, Philippines | 20 November 2014
MANILA (ILO News) - For the past three years, the International Labour Organization (ILO), in partnership with migration-relevant government agencies, employers and workers’ organizations and civil society, has been implementing the European Union-financed project on “Decent Work across Borders”. The 2-million euro project focuses on raising awareness for the safe, ethical and decent migration and voluntary return of healthcare professionals and skilled workers from the Philippines, India and Viet Nam to selected European member States.

Today, the Decent Work across Borders comes to a close, marked by an event where the ILO will present the project’s most recent accomplishments among which figure the introduction in the national nursing curriculum of a new elective course on decent work and migration, an on-line course on entrepreneurship skills training course for health professionals, seven country specific information booklets for potential new migrants, the enhancement of the Department of Health on-line job portals and the new human resources for health projections. The event also serves as a platform for key government representatives, healthcare workers, trade union and employers’ organizations, professional organizations and recruitment agencies to continue their cooperation to ensure decent work for Filipino health professionals. The project will endorse its policy recommendations to its many stakeholders.

According to the OECD, the health sector in the EU is of growing social and economic significance, accounting on average for 10 per cent of employment across OECD countries. The forecast for the need of health professionals in many developed countries is numbered in millions. The Philippines is one of the most important sources of foreign healthcare workers for OECD member countries. Filipino nurses alone represent about 15 per cent of all immigrant nurses in OECD countries. Around 12,000 nurses leave the Philippines annually to work abroad. Despite the World Health Organization's encouragement for countries to be self-sufficient in providing healthcare and retain their own health professionals, it is expected that the migration of health professionals from countries such as Philippines and India will continue to grow.

Stressing the need to reinforce governance frameworks for labour migration to ensure adequate protection and decent working standards, EU Ambassador Guy Ledoux said "The European Union is making all efforts to maximise the benefits of migration and to minimise the risks. Health workers in the EU enjoy excellent working conditions and with the ILO project we are increasing the benefits for the migrant health professionals and their sending countries through better information, training and guidance."

“It is crucial to engage source and destination countries in a constructive dialogue around the many issues associated with migration of skilled workers and health professionals” stated Mr Lawrence Jeff Johnson, Director of the ILO Country Office for the Philippines. “The knowledge generated by the Decent Work across Borders project, its policy dialogues, the services developed for skilled migrants and the enhancement of the labour market information systems in the Philippines will continue to impact the migration governance institutions and actors for the years to come” he added.

The mobility of healthcare professional raises numerous ethical challenges. At the global level, it raises the issue of the equitable distribution of health human resources between developing and developed countries as it directly impacts on any country’s ability to deliver quality health care. For the migrant workers, migration remains a process which is filled with the hopes for decent employment and better wages abroad and increased professional opportunities. But it remains a journey filled with the challenges of possible excessive recruitment fees, contract substitution, de-skilling and discrimination.

“Migration of health professionals is at the junction of the right to mobility, right to health and right to decent work” says Ms Catherine Vaillancourt-Laflamme, Chief Technical Advisor for the ILO Decent Work across Borders project. She adds “it is about finding an acceptable compromise between the rights and obligations of migrant workers, employers and governments. The many health relevant stakeholders involved in the project since its inception are showing that social dialogue can bring about the desired solutions”.

A documentary Tale of a Journey: Migrant Health Workers’ Voice through Images, produced by the ILO Decent Work across Borders project in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Film Institute, will be screened at the event. The documentary follows the lives of Filipino nurses as they face the challenges of completing their education, dealing with recruiters, competing with other nurses, managing their family life, facing a myriad of government policies and going through facets of adjustment abroad to fulfil their dreams. With additional statements by renowned experts in the field and government officials in the Philippines and Finland, it presents a balance narrative on the entire migration cycle from pre-immigration to return.


For further information please contact:

Mr Margarito Raynera, Jr., EU Programme Officer, +63 2 859 5100, Email
Ms Thelma Gecolea, EU Public Affairs Officer, +63 2 859 5124, Email

Ms Catherine Vaillancourt-Laflamme, ILO Decent Work across Borders, +63 2 580 9917, Email
Ms Minette Rimando, ILO Media and Public Information, +63 2 580 9905, Email

Ms Rachel Yalung, Asia Pacific Film Institute, +63 2 722 7801 / 738 1484, Email