The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says its FAIRWAY programme in Nigeria has been able to galvanise the landscape of labour migration governance since its implementation in 2020.
The National Programme Coordinator, ILO, Mr Austin Erameh, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
He spoke on the sidelines of a three-day Stakeholders Sensitisation Workshop for the Implementation of the Revised National Policy on Labour Migration (NPLM) organised by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment (FMLE) in collaboration with ILO.
The FAIRWAY programme is an inter-regional programme implemented by the ILO with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
The programme basically looks at addressing cultural challenges militating against labour migration from Africa to the Arab states.
Erameh, on its successes, said: “This includes the support of the revised NPLM, which has been validated by stakeholders and approved by the Federal Executive Council.
“Another significant success that the programme has recorded is facilitating union to union Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Nigeria Labour Congress and the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions.
“That MoU seeks to ensure there is a union to union collaboration where the trade unions can contribute to protecting the rights of migrant workers along that corridor.”
The project coordinator said also that the programme had recorded success in the support and facilitation of the revision of the code of conduct for private employment agencies in Nigeria.
According to him, such move has made the code of conduct more responsive to most recent dynamics in the labour market as well as improved the protection mechanisms for all workers, including migrant workers.
“The project has supported the government in developing several mechanisms that aim to contribute to protecting the rights of migrant workers.
“This includes through developing a pre-departure orientation seminar manual; the gender mainstreaming strategy, as well as developing media tools that the media can be able to report better in the work that they do, “ he said.
Erameh said, however, there was need for the political will to implement the adopted instruments and framework of government.
He called for improvement in the area of concluding bilateral labour agreements between the Nigerian government and governments of destination countries.
According to him, bilateral labour agreements have been proven to be one of the mechanisms through which migrant workers can be protected.
“We have been ensuring that we provide the required technical support to the government upon request to improve the landscape that the government can also facilitate signing those bilateral agreements.
“What we look forward to is the conclusion or signing of those bilateral labour agreements that can improve safeguarding the rights of migrant workers across the migration cycle.
“In as much as we also understand that signing the agreement is not an elixir in itself, we also believe that it sure is one mechanism that has been proven to improve rights of migrant workers.
“What we look forward to is also ensuring that when those MOUs are signed; Nigeria as a country of origin also begins to improve the general landscapes, including capacities to be able to monitor and effectively implement such.
“In that regard, the ILO country office, Abuja, through the ILO FAIRWAY programme, has also been training the national stakeholders in understanding negotiating processes, reporting and evaluating processes in the area of bilateral labour agreements”.
