Wednesday, 22nd October 2014
By Maheesha Mudugamuwa
The Colombo Process member countries had agreed to protect the rights of workers, promote cheaper, faster and safer transfer of remittances and create a database on the economic trends of destination countries, the current Chair of the Organisation, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Minister Dilan Perera said.
The second Senior Officials Meeting of the Colombo Process and the third Asia-EU dialogue, two key intra and inter-regional processes on facilitating managed and legal international labour migration ended following a three-day dialogue in Colombo last Thursday.
Addressing the media at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo on Friday to announce the outcome of the meetings Minister Perera said that the dialogue would also help create new vistas for Asian migrant worker aspirants in EU markets.
"The Colombo Process would further improve managed and legal international labour migration", he said.
Perera said: "The Asia-EU dialogue is another regional consultative process encompassing Colombo Process countries and the 28 EU countries."
The ‘Colombo Process’ countries had also agreed to set up a permanent secretariat for the organization, he said, adding that the funding mechanisms and the country this secretariat would be set up would be agreed following further discussions.
The Minister said that the member countries had also agreed to improve pre-departure training for workers and a more ethical recruitment process.
The next meeting will be held in Brazil.
From : http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=112594
