Eswatini launches National Labour Migration Policy

The Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, launched the National Labour Migration Policy (NLMP) and its Implementation Plan on March 6, 2025, at the UN Building. This significant event marks a milestone in the country's efforts to enhance labour migration governance and management.

The Labour Migration Policy was developed with technical assistance from the ILO as well as the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Policy development started with the establishment of a Technical Working Group several years ago, and is in line with international commitments of Eswatini, in particular those in the context of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The NLMP aims to regulate labour migration effectively, ensuring safe, orderly, and regularized immigration and emigration for work that is beneficial for both migrants and the broader economy. The policy aligns with the SADC Labour Migration Action Plan (LMAP) (2020-2025), which seeks to enhance regional integration and improve labour migration governance.

The policy includes strategic objectives such as improving information systems on labour migration, enhancing the welfare of migrant workers and their families, facilitating engagement with the diaspora, and establishing cooperation across ministries and with social partners. The Implementation Plan supplements the policy, ensuring its effective execution through a Governance structure consisting of civil society, government, and labour market organizations. Accordingly, the launch event featured the formal establishment of the Steering Committee for the NLMP by the Hon. Minister of Labour and Social Security. The tripartite Steering Committee will play a crucial role in implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the policy, and will be supported by both ILO and IOM.

The programme included remarks from various stakeholders, including the Hon. Minister of Labour and Social Security, representatives from IOM, ILO, organized business and labour, and other agencies and institutions. In his remarks, the Minister called upon each and every stakeholder to embrace the NLMP and actively participate in its implementation, so that together a framework can be built that protects the people, strengthens the economy and reflects the values of the nation.

The Kingdom of Eswatini on joining the growing group of countries in Africa with an official National Labour Migration Policy in place, and in line with these policies the ILO and partner institutions will continue strengthening their work on improving labour migration management at the country, RECs and continental level.

He also underlined ILO’s conviction that lack of labour protection for migrant workers undermines protection generally for all workers and noted that implementation of the NLMP has in fact started in areas such as labour market information systems and international labour standards. With regard to the latter, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in collaboration with the ILO undertook a gap analysis of key ILO labour migration conventions, and the ILO, in collaboration with social partners, is ready to continue supporting the implementation of the NLMP.