A two-day meeting of labor sending countries in Asia concludes in Kathmandu by agreeing on common stance on the objective of developing a joint contribution to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration preparatory process.

Senior officials of the Colombo Process Member States, who are responsible for supporting their countries’ endeavors to protect and promote the rights of their labor migrants going abroad, enhance migration governance and engage in the GCM process suggested a set of actionable recommendations as per the expert level meeting of September 8 and recommendations to address priority issues and challenges in the GCM.

The recommendations are based on the five thematic areas of the Colombo Process: skills and qualification recognition processes of labor migrants; fostering ethical recruitment; effective pre-departure orientation and empowerment for migrant workers; remittances; and international labor market analysis, read a press release issued by the International Organization for Migration, Nepal.

The meeting provided an opportunity for the Colombo Process Member States to provide the GCM with their collective experiences and effective practices to address migration challenges and opportunities and ensure that the regional perspective is reflected in the final outcome of the GCM process.

The outcome of this meeting — the joint Colombo Process contribution to the GCM — will be shared at the regional United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific  consultation in Bangkok, Thailand, and submitted for consideration at the GCM stocktaking  meeting in Mexico.

The Colombo Process is a Regional Consultative Process on migration comprising 12 Asian labour sending countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam — and is currently chaired by Nepal. Six of Colombo Process Member States are among the top 11 remittance-receiving countries in the world. The UN Migration Agency provides technical expertise to the Colombo Process.

State Minister for Labor and Employment Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary inaugurated the meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting is hosted by the Government of Nepal Ministry of Labor and Employment and supported by the IOM and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.