Stakeholders on safe labour migration recruitment are currently undergoing a five-day training and awareness workshop in Keffi, Nasarawa State, North Central Nigeria.
The workshop is to build the capacity of participants on fair recruitment of labour migrants as well as familiarise them with the contents of the Standard Operating Procedures for international labour recruitments.
One of the organising partners of the event, is the Human Capital Providers Association of Nigeria HuCaPAN.
In a message by its President, read by the Vice President Dr Nzeribe Okegbue, the Association in recent times, has been at the forefront of advocating for standardising recruitment of migrant workers.
He said that the action has resulted in the creation of Standard Operating Procedures for International Recruitment of Nigerian Migrant Workers (SOP), the review of the National Policy on Labour Migration (NPLM 2020), the review of the Code of Conduct for PEAs (Revised CoC 2021) and “The going collaboration with the ILO and the Centre Migration Studies of Nnamdi Azikiwe University to develop a framework for facilitating international recruitment of migrant workers.“
He identified challenges such as low awareness among Private Employment Agencies (PEAs) regarding the revised CoC, failure to apply its normative contents and the absence of monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the extent of dissemination, implementation and compliance with the CoC and the General Principles and Operating Guidelines, as huddles affecting the overall labour governance in Nigeria.
The Country Director of the International Labour Organisation ILO, Ms Vanessa Phala in a message, called for the development and implementation of contemporary strategies to address evolving challenges faced in the world of work.
“With an evolving world of work and increased need for stakeholders engagement in addressing the accompanying challenges thereof, there is need to ensure broad stakeholders’ participation in national discourse, including with the ILO constituent in the development and implementation of contemporary strategies to address this challenges.
“This event is facilitated within the framework of the FAIRWAY Programme which is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Workshop is designed to engage stakeholders on promoting best practices and fair recruitment in Nigeria on the application of the revised Code of Conduct and Fair Recruitment principles, and further seeks to amplifies practices,“ she said.
According to Phala who was represented by Mrs Ajuonuma, Finance and Administrative Assistant, ILO Office, as an important stakeholder in the world of work, “The ILO in Nigeria has continued to engage national stakeholders, including HuCaPAN across different layers of social dialogue, supporting the Association in achieving its goals, while complementing the attainment of ILO’s mandate in advancing social justice and promoting decent work.“
For the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, decent work is the driver of development across the globe.
As the regulating government institution, the Ministry said it is set to strengthen its relationship with stakeholders in ensuring that everything is done to ensure that labour migration is done regularly.
At the end of the 5 days of discussion, the expected outcomes include improved understanding on the application of the CoC for PEAs and the General Principles and Operational Guidelines (GPOG) on fair recruitment across agencies and employment hubs, strategies for coordination among relevant world of world actors on recruitment practices and processes enhanced and draft framework facilitating the engagement of PEAs during international recruitment.
There were goodwill messages from the Nigeria Employers Association of Nigeria NECA, and the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, one of the organisers of the training.
Participants are drawn from the Nigeria Immigration Service, Labour, Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), the Nigeria Police, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) PEAs and the media among others.
PIAK
