The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH – Ghana, through its Programme Migration & Diaspora (PMD), has begun a nationwide sensitisation on the National Labour Migration Policy.
The first part of the sensitization on the approved policy, has taken place in Tamale and Elmina, in the northern and central regions respectively. These events updated relevant stakeholders in the respective regions on the policy’s content.
The development of the National Labour Migration Policy is in response to the policy recommendation of the National Migration Policy and government’s response to the increased reportage on the abuse of the rights of Ghanaian labour migrants in destination countries.
In his opening remarks at the sensitisation in Tamale, the Chief Labour Officer at the Labour Department of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Eugene Narh Korletey said, “a successful achievement of the national labour migration policy requires a multi-sectoral approach.
As such, there is the need for institutional coordination and collaboration among key labour migration actors at the national and regional levels which would further require the participation of the public institutions.” He added that “the implementation of the framework of the policy outlines the roles that each of the public institutions and agencies have to play to create the awareness and public understanding of the policy.”
The sensitisation sessions and multi-stakeholder dialogues are to expose participants and the public to the four key areas of the policy and afford them the opportunity to make inputs into the mechanisms of implementing the policy. The four key areas are: creating a responsive governance system for labour migration; protecting and empowering labour migrants and their families; harnessing the potentials of labour migration for national development and strengthening labour market and migration information systems for evidence-based policy making.
The policy provides a coordinated framework that seeks to promote good governance in the management of labour migration policy issues, which would ultimately protect the rights of migrant workers and maximize the sustainable development impacts.
Speaking on behalf of the GIZ-Programme Migration and Diaspora, Dr. James Nyomakwa-Obimpeh, Technical Advisor for Migration Policy said “we remain committed to supporting the public sensitization of the policy document, and we believe the sensitization must start with states and non-states officials.
In the coming months, I am hopeful that we will hold conversations on how we can sensitise the different groups of Ghanaians about this policy in the different local languages to get the message of the policy to everyone.”
