Ministerial meeting of Abu Dhabi Dialogue adopts Declaration that refers to ILO principles and guidelines for fair migration

The fourth ministerial meeting of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue concluded with a Declaration on migrant workers or ‘temporary contract workers’ by delegations of eighteen member countries from Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

24 January 2017

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COLOMBO (ILO News) – The fourth ministerial meeting of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD), held in Colombo, concluded on 24 January 2017 with the adoption of a Declaration on migrant workers or ‘temporary contract workers’.

The Declaration, adopted by delegations of eighteen member countries of the ADD, including countries from Asia and the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, features guidelines in four areas for a collaborative agenda, including on:

Labour recruitment
Skilling, skills certification and mutual recognition
Use of technology to facilitate and improve the outcomes of labour mobility
Global consultations on the adoption of a Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

Under labour recruitment, the Declaration includes a paragraph on “Developing and implementing joint responses to non-compliance, in accordance with the national laws of member states, taking into account […] the set of voluntary ‘principles and guidelines on fair recruitment’ recently adopted by ILO.”

During the meeting, several governments – including Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and the UAE – came forward to express support for pilot testing a fair recruitment modality as outlined in ILOs plenary intervention, and agreed that such a pilot would be tested in the Philippines-UAE migration corridor. In this context, the Declaration states “Directing the ADD Permanent Secretariat to keep member governments abreast of the progress of the pilot project on labour recruitment that will be jointly implemented by the governments of the Philippines and the UAE, with technical assistance from ILO, allowing for shared benefit from the outcome and lessons learnt.”

Under global consultations towards the adoption of a Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the Declaration recognizes the “immense contribution the mobility of migrant workers has made and is expected to continue to make to the development of countries of origin and destination alike.” The Declaration states that, “mindful of the potential of significantly enhancing the development outcomes of labour mobility by acting to improve its governance”, and “recognizing our shared responsibility to extend full and effective protection to migrant workers so that they are empowered to contribute to and equitably benefit from these developments, […] our joint action […] enables us to develop sound and effective solutions to the challenges faced by labour mobility that can be shared with the rest of the world.”

“As such, the Colombo Declaration offers scope for collaboration to implement the adopted Fair Migration Agenda in the interrelated regions of Asia and the GCC”, said Hans van de Glind, the ILO’s Senior Migration Specialist for Arab States.  During the meeting, the recently adopted “ILO General principles and operational guidelines on fair recruitment” and “Bali Declaration” were shared, along with an ILO white paper on fair recruitment in the Asia-Arab States corridor. A presentation was also given in plenary, outlining four modalities for fair recruitment to be considered for pilot testing, along with unilateral measures governments can take towards fair recruitment.